Mild cognitive impairment – education with impact

Growing evidence suggests that supporting lifestyle changes for people with a mild cognitive impairment (MCI) could improve the health of their brains and may reduce their risk of developing dementia. Indeed, recent evidence suggests that up to 40% of dementia cases may be potentially preventable through modification of life-course risk factors (Livingston 2020).

Unfortunately, this important window of opportunity to reduce dementia risk and improve wellbeing is often missed in existing UK clinical pathways, where people with an MCI diagnosis are commonly discharged without follow-up and asked to ‘watch and wait’ for their condition to deteriorate (Leroi et al, 2020).

To help address this, in 2021, Dementia Academy offered its first course in mild cognitive impairment. Initially intended as a small, virtual course for the Greater Manchester area, commissioned by Dementia United and provided by Dr Ross Dunne, the course became a national affair, with 73 attendees and over 20 quality improvement projects across the country.

Practical ideas for quality improvement

As a result of those projects, we are delighted to publish our first 'Education with Impact' booklet, 'Quality improvement in mild cognitive impairment (MCI): Stories from across the UK and Ireland'.

The booklet contains a range of different projects carried out by delegates on the first MCI course, presenting them briefly in four categories, with a short background to introduce each:

• Brain health promotion

• Risk mitigation

• Monitoring and early intervention

• Awareness raising

Our hope is that, by sharing these examples of quality improvement, they can provide inspiration to others, or a template for use in local services, leading to lasting improvement in services and support around brain health and cognition across the country.

New MCI virtual course

This June we're excited to offer another fully free, fully virtual course in mild cognitive impairment, with the same focus on quality improvement, brain health promotion and dementia risk prevention, but for a broader audience and with a wider variety of speakers.

A series of much shorter talks will examine the topic from all sides, with content relevant for anyone involved in services or support around MCI and brain health, including health and social care practitioners, service managers and commissioners, the voluntary sector, and those in the public domain interested in learning more.

A series of 8 modules takes delegates on a journey from brain health promotion, to cognitive assessment, lifestyle intervention, dementia risk reduction, and appropriate escalation of care when needed.

Each module lasts around 40 minutes and comprises interviews and presentations from expert speakers across varying backgrounds, including clinicians, researchers, leads for interventions, data specialists, commissioners, and people affected by MCI themselves.

Each module features a past delegate, sharing their quality improvement project carried out as part of last year's course. All delegates will be encouraged to complete a quality improvement project of their own, and with opportunity to learn from past delegates inspiring them, and mentors available to support and motivate this year's delegates, we hope that this educational offering can be as transformative as that of 2021.

For those looking for more, 'deep dive' sessions will be offered as optional extras to each module, providing further written or video content to give a more immersive learning experience.

Sign up now, ready for the first module's launch in July!