Distress Observation Tool (DOT) for people with advance dementia

[From Hammond Innovation]

Hammond Innovations is dedicated to improving dementia care with practical, evidence-based solutions, and one example of this is the Distress Observation Tool (DOT), which drew on dementia and palliative expertise from our researchers, and across Australia.

Emerging from the Advance Project, the DOT helps care teams and families systematically observe and record non-verbal signs of distress in people with advanced dementia, enabling earlier and more accurate interventions when verbal communication is challenging.

Introduced to care teams at HammondCare Horsley, the DOT empowered the team to better recognise and respond to distress, resulting in an increase of 36% in palliative care assessment for new admissions, with 85% of residents screened for distress.

By making the DOT accessible to nurses, carers, and families, Hammond Innovations supports a person-centred approach and aims to embed this evidence-based tool across all HammondCare homes, as well as encourage wider sector adoption.