Quality Compliance System (QCS) is delighted to announce that its Dementia Care Champion, Jackie Pool, has been awarded The Journal of Dementia’s Lifetime Achievement Award. Part of the not-for-profit’s National Dementia Care Awards 2022, it recognises her significant contribution to improving the quality of life for people living with dementia.
Jackie plays an integral role with QCS in creating a progressive best practice dementia strategy for care providers. QCS has fully supported Jackie to advance the QCS PAL Instrument she developed, a validated tool for assessing the cognitive and functional ability of individuals. And together they have created the online QCS Dementia Centre to promote evidenced dementia care excellence.
The award judges reached their decision because Jackie has “a long history in the provision of person-centred dementia care and in the development of tools and training that impact significantly on those with dementia.”
According to Jackie, the award means a great deal to her personally. “This is an accolade from my colleagues and peers. We have all worked so hard over many years to get the right support for people with dementia. And to be recognised for my work by this group is heartening.”
Jackie has had an illustrious career spanning 40 years. She started out as an Occupational Therapist when she saw first-hand that individuals living with dementia were vulnerable and no-one was speaking out for them. “It made me feel that I wanted to do something to improve their care – and I’ve been doing it ever since,” she says.
She has worked in a number of high profile roles for some of the UK’s largest health and social care providers. She also set up her own specialist dementia care consultancy and developed the Pool Activity Level (PAL) Instrument, a validated tool for assessing the cognitive and functional ability of individuals.
Her work in academia has included research projects at the Universities of Manchester and Exeter, and a collaboration with academics from Bangor University on a ground-breaking study of the impact of cognitive rehabilitation on those living with dementia.
She is a prolific conference speaker and author of books and articles on the topic of dementia. In addition, she sat on the reference group for the National Dementia Strategy and was commissioned by Skills for Care to write the national dementia qualification framework (QCFs).
