Admiral Nurse Dementia Helpline terms and conditions of use

These terms and conditions were last updated on Monday 17th April 2023.

Important Notice

Our registered Admiral Nurses (specialist dementia nurses) are here to help those in need; whether you care for or know someone with dementia or have concerns regarding your own health. Our Admiral Nurses are able to provide tailored specialist practical and/or emotional support.

We encourage anyone in need of support to contact our Admiral Nurse Dementia Helpline and we will do our best to help.

Please note that if you do contact our helpline, these terms and conditions will apply. You should read through these terms and conditions carefully as they govern any such contact you may have with our Admiral Nurse Dementia Helpline.

Please read clause 9 as it includes exclusions and limits on our liability.

Important: Our Admiral Nurses can give help and guidance to those living with or caring for someone with dementia. They are able to give nursing advice, however they cannot provide medical diagnoses. If you wish to discuss specific medical concerns, we strongly recommend that this is discussed directly with a GP. Our Admiral Nurses cannot endorse any particular medical treatments or forms of care. We are only able to provide advice and guidance over the telephone or via email and cannot provide any face-to-face assistance.

Please note: our Admiral Nurse Dementia Helpline is not an emergency service and is not available 24 hours a day. Please see section 6 for further information on availability.

Background and introduction
1. These terms and conditions apply to and govern the relationship between you and us in respect of your use of the Admiral Nurse Dementia Helpline.
2. These terms and conditions only apply to your use of the Admiral Nurse
  Dementia Helpline and do not apply to any other interaction between you and us or any other service we may provide to you.
3. Any words used in these terms and conditions shall have the following meaning:
  1. “Admiral Nurse” means a specialist dementia nurse, registered with the Nursing and Midwifery Council and contracted by Dementia UK to provide services via the Admiral Nurse Dementia Helpline.
  2. “Admiral Nurse Dementia Helpline ” means the helpline through which you can contact our Admiral Nurses which includes:
    1. The telephone helpline which can be accessed by calling 0800 888 6678
    2. The online contact form which can be accessed by filling out the contact form at the following URL: dementiauk.org/get-support/admiral-nurse-dementia-helpline/
    3. By email. Our email address is: helpline@dementiauk.org
  3. “us/we/our/Dementia UK” means Dementia UK (Registered Charity England & Wales 1039404 and Scotland SCO47429 and company reference number 02944156). Our registered office can be found at 7th floor, One Aldgate, London, EC3N 1RE.
Who we are and our Admiral Nurses
1. We are the provider of the Admiral Nurse Dementia Helpline through which you are able to contact one of our Admiral Nurses. For further information in respect of the Admiral Nurse Dementia Helpline, please see dementiauk.org/get-support/admiral-nurse-dementia-helpline/
2. All Admiral Nurses who work on the Admiral Nurse Dementia Helpline are contracted directly by us.
3. All our Admiral Nurses are registered with and governed by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) and as such they are required to comply with certain NMC codes of conduct and practice standards.
4. All our Admiral Nurses attend regular practice and professional development sessions to ensure that they are up-to-date with the latest practices in dementia care.
5. We are members of the National Helpline Partnership which ensures excellence when providing a helpline service.
What we do
1. Through the Admiral Nurse Dementia Helpline we can provide advice and support to:
  1. Family and friends of someone with dementia;
  2. Professional carers caring for someone with dementia; and
  3. Anyone who has dementia related concerns about their own health or the health of another. We do not provide any services to organisations, businesses or to those using such services for commercial purposes save as set out in this clause.
2. When you contact our Admiral Nurse Dementia Helpline you will be liaising directly with one of our Admiral Nurses who are able to provide advice and guidance (including written guidance where requested) on:
  1. Coping with a diagnosis of dementia;
  2. Explaining a diagnosis of dementia and the effects this can have on the person, their family and contacts;
  3. Organisations available in their local area who are able to provide further advice, guidance and care in respect of dementia;
  4. Promotion of well being and prevention of ill health in the person diagnosed with dementia and their family;
  5. Preventing and managing changes in behaviour and social functioning in respect of a person diagnosed with dementia;
  6. Coping with dementia, whether in respect of yourself or someone else;
  7. Providing care for someone with dementia, although please note that our Admiral Nurses are only able to provide advice and guidance via telephone or email and are unable to provide any direct, face-to-face care themselves but can give advice and guidance on the types and availability of care;
  8. When you should seek further medical attention;
  9. Social and dementia care facilities and services, their function and uses; and
  10. Giving general guidance about medication (subject to the restrictions in clause 3.3 below) We do not provide any other services through our Admiral Nurse Dementia Helpline other than as set out in this clause.
3. We are unable to provide advice or guidance in respect of:
  1. Providing a diagnosis of dementia;
  2. Prescribing any medication; and
  3. Giving opinions on particular care facilities or specific services offered by any care facilities. We will not give a recommendation in respect of a particular care facility, but can give general information on what you should consider when looking at potential local care facilities.
  4. In addition to the above, as part of the service we provide via the Admiral Nurse Dementia Helpline, we may direct you to third party websites for guidance, advice or information. We are not responsible for the information on any third party website and accept no liability for the information on any such websites, and we accept no liability for any loss or damage caused by any act or omission of any third party to whom we may direct you.
4. We do not own, operate, manage or have any influence over any care homes or care and social facilities. Any information we provide in respect of care providers and/or care homes and social facilities is for information purposes only, and we cannot recommend or endorse any particular care home or facility. You are recommended to conduct your own research and due diligence before selecting a care provider, care home or social facility. For more information on care providers, care homes and social facilities, please see the Care Quality Commission’s website (www.cqc.org.uk). We accept no liability for any loss or damage caused by any act, omission or default of any care home or facility in respect of which we provide you with information.
Changes to the Admiral Nurse Dementia Helpline or these terms and conditions
1. We may vary these terms and conditions from time to time.
2. We may also make changes to the services we provide to you via the Admiral Nurse Dementia Helpline from time to time, including but not limited to changing the types and categories of advice and guidance we provide via the Admiral Nurse Dementia Helpline; and the times we operate the service.
3. Any changes we make in accordance with this clause will be notified to you via our website at dementiauk.org/get-support/admiral-nurse-dementia-helpline and we recommend that you check this from time to time.
Your role
1. Any information you give us, whether about yourself or another person, must be accurate and complete to the best of your ability and knowledge. We accept no liability for any loss whatsoever which you incur howsoever caused and which arises as a result of (whether directly or indirectly) inaccurate or incomplete information provided by you.
2. If you contact the Admiral Nurse Dementia Helpline to discuss someone other than yourself then you are solely responsible for ensuring that you are authorised to discuss the health and other matters of the relevant person. We accept no liability where you provide us with information which you did not have authority or consent to provide.
3. By calling our Admiral Nurse Dementia Helpline you expressly confirm and represent to us that you have the authority and/or consent to share any information which you provide to us.
Availability and response times
1. Subject to clause 6.5 and 6.6 the Admiral Nurse Dementia Helpline is available via telephone seven days a week, from 9:00am to 9:00pm Monday to Friday, Saturday, Sunday and all Bank Holidays (except 25th December) from 9:00am to 5:00pm. For more information go to: dementiauk.org/dementia-helpline-terms-and-conditions/
2. We cannot guarantee that an Admiral Nurse will be available to answer your call immediately but we shall endeavour to answer all calls as quickly as possible, and return calls within 48 hours of you leaving a message.
3. If you contact the Admiral Nurse Dementia Helpline via the contact form at dementiauk.org/get-support/admiral-nurse-dementia-helpline or via email then we will use our reasonable endeavours to respond to your enquiry within 48 hours of the time you contacted us.
4. We will use reasonable endeavours to provide you with a call back where you request one but this will be subject to both the availability of an Admiral Nurse and the times at which the Admiral Nurse Dementia Helpline is open.
5. We reserve the absolute right at our sole discretion and at any time to amend the availability times of the Admiral Nurse Dementia Helpline which are set out in clause 6.1. We will give notification that any changes have been made via our website at dementiauk.org/get-support/admiral-nurse-dementia-helpline
6. If the Admiral Nurse Dementia Helpline is unavailable in any way (including but not limited to the unavailability of Admiral Nurses) for reasons outside of our control then we shall not be liable to you for any loss of any kind which you or any other person suffers as a result. Reasons outside of our control include but are not limited to power cuts, failures in the internet, acts of God, flood, drought, earthquake or other natural disaster; terrorist attack, war, riots, collapse of buildings, any labour or trade dispute, strikes.
Fees and charge
1. We do not charge you to use the Admiral Nurse Dementia Helpline.
2. The Admiral Nurse Dementia Helpline telephone number is a Freephone number however network providers may levy fees or charges for calling us if you are on a particular telephone subscription package that doesn’t enable Freephone numbers. You are solely responsible for any fees or charges incurred with your telephone network provider as a result of calling our Admiral Nurse Dementia Helpline.
If there is a problem
1. If you have any questions, comments or complaints about the Admiral Nurse Dementia Helpline, please do not hesitate to contact us and we will try to resolve any issues. You can contact us by telephoning 020 8036 5400 or by writing to us at feedback@dementiauk.org or Dementia UK, 7th floor, One Aldgate, London, EC3N 1RE.
2. If the complaint is about a nurse’s compliance with the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) Code of Professional Conduct and/or fitness to practice, this will be referred to the NMC. Individuals wishing to complain about a nurses’ professional conduct can also contact the NMC directly.
Our responsibility for loss or damage incurred by you
1. We will only be liable to you under these terms and conditions if we provide you with advice via the Admiral Nurse Dementia Helpline which is negligent, in which case, we will only be liable for the losses or damage which you incur which is a foreseeable result, but we shall not be liable for unforeseeable losses or damage. Loss or damage is foreseeable if either it is obvious that it will happen or if, at the time you contact the Admiral Nurse Dementia Helpline, we and you knew it might happen.
2. We do not exclude or limit in any way our liability to you where it would be unlawful to do so. This includes liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence or the negligence of our employees, agents or subcontractors; for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation; for breach of your legal rights in relation to the services we provide via the Admiral Nurse Dementia Helpline.
3. If you use the Admiral Nurse Dementia Helpline for commercial or business purposes then we will have no liability to you for any loss of profit, loss of business, loss of opportunity or business interruption.
How we may use the information you provide
1. All information you provide to us will be held in the strictest confidence and not disclosed to any third party.
2. All calls to the Admiral Nurse Dementia Helpline will be recorded in order that we can monitor and ensure the quality of our service.
3. Please see our privacy policy for further information on what we will and will not do with the information you provide to us.
Other important terms
1. Any use by you of the Admiral Nurse Dementia Helpline creates a direct relationship between you and us on the terms set out in these terms and conditions. No other person shall have any rights to enforce any of these terms against us.
2. All calls to the Admiral Nurse Dementia Helpline will be recorded in order that we can monitor and ensure the quality of our service.
3. These terms are governed by English law and you can bring legal proceedings in respect of the services in the English courts. If you live in Scotland you can bring legal proceedings in respect of the services in either the Scottish or the English courts. If you live in Northern Ireland, you can bring legal proceedings in respect of the services in either the Northern Irish or the English courts. If you are based in a country within the European Union then you can bring legal proceedings in the country in which you are based. If you are based outside of the European Union then any legal proceedings must be brought in England and Wales.