Welcome

Pharmacy teams often see people regularly, sometimes before other services notice changes in memory, communication, daily functioning, or medicine use. That puts pharmacy staff in a position to protect safety, support dignity, and improve wellbeing for people living with dementia and their carers.

This course is for pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, dispensers, medicines counter staff, delivery staff, managers, locums, and other patient-facing pharmacy team members. It is based mainly on Great Britain professional standards and England-facing NHS and NICE guidance. Short notes are included where legal or service frameworks differ in Scotland or Northern Ireland, and local law, guidance, and employer policy should be followed there.

Why This Course Matters

• Support safer medicines use: dementia can affect remembering doses, opening packs, understanding labels, reporting side effects, and attending reviews.
• Improve communication and dignity: small adjustments to pace, language, privacy, and the environment can reduce anxiety and make care more effective.
• Work well with carers and other professionals: people living with dementia often need coordinated support rather than isolated advice.
• Know when to escalate: sudden confusion, unsafe medicine use, distress, safeguarding concerns, or capacity issues require prompt, appropriate action.

How This Course Will Help You

After completing this course, you should be better able to recognise how dementia can affect pharmacy care, adapt your communication, support safer medicines use, involve carers appropriately, and respond with more confidence when consent, capacity, distress, or escalation arise.