Validation of Welsh Dementia Assessment

Tender description

To commission time limited research to further identify good quality normative data on Welsh language versions of cognitive assessment scales that are commonly used in Wales, allowing the confident interpretation of assessments carried out in a clinical context. The Dementia Action Plan 2018-2022 recognises that for Welsh speakers living with dementia receiving care and support in their first or preferred language is a matter of clinical need. As their condition progresses, people with dementia may understand or be able to communicate in one language only. The plan also recognised the need to work with stakeholders to identify and utilise the most robust clinically validated dementia assessment tool(s) for use in the Welsh language and commission research as necessary. A number of brief cognitive assessments (including the MoCA, ACE-III and GP-Cog) for older people have been translated by LLAIS and published in a tool-kit by the Alzheimer’s Society. Other assessments which have been translated include the brief neuropsychological battery, R-BANS and the test of pre-morbid IQ, the Spot the Word Test (Gweld y Gair) (Clare et al (2017)). Some validation work and limited normative data is available for these tests. The contractor will be required to collate information on Welsh language versions of cognitive assessment tools/scales and the normative data available allowing the confident interpretation of assessments carried out in a clinical context when compared to use of the same tests in English. Expert advice has previously confirmed that most widely used scales across Wales are the ACE-III (Hsieh et al., 2013), the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) (Nasreddine et al., 2005) and the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS) (Randolph, 1998 rev. 2012). Contractors will need to demonstrate a detailed understanding of dementia assessment and the importance of language in that assessment. It is an important requirement that contractors are able to work confidently in both Welsh and English for this contract.