Treatment centre team announce changes to improve the patient experience for people with dementia

COLCHESTER, U.K. - May 24, 2013 - PRLog -- Changes including clearer signage, a better use of colour and contrast to reduce stress and help people move around the waiting and examination areas will be made at the recommendation of dementia expert Maizie Mears-Owen.

The announcement, made during Dementia Awareness Week – an Alzheimer’s Society initiative which aims to get people talking about dementia – follows the delivery of a pioneering dementia training programme and environmental audit at the centre by Care UK’s head of dementia.

Norman Lamb, Minister of State for Care and Support, this week encouraged all hospitals to become dementia friendly. He believes improving the care of people in hospital with dementia is a priority – an ethos shared by the clinical and administrative teams at Southampton NHS Treatment Centre.

The experiential training, which earlier this month was delivered in a medical setting for the first time, helps people to better understand dementia by allowing them to see how people living with the condition experience the world.

Devised by Maizie Mears-Owen, the training gave participants direct experience of the dramatic effect that dementia and frailty can have on the senses. Special glasses blurred their vision, headphones delivered white noise and gloves restricted the movement of fingers.

The trainees found themselves being fed food that they couldn’t see, drinking tea from plastic training beakers and being asked several questions in quick succession without enough time to think of replies.

Colleagues who participated in the training said they felt empowered because they now had a greater understanding of what people with dementia experience, meaning they can find unique ways to help each person feel less stressed and threatened by what is happening around them.

Maizie leads a team of six people at Care UK dedicated to devising and implementing new, improved ways of caring for people with Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia. This means the organisation, which runs a number of different health and social care services, is able to utilise what’s learnt in a residential care setting to improve the patient experience in its healthcare services. This integrated thinking has helped to achieve numerous awards in the last few years.

Maizie Mears-Owen, head of dementia at Care UK, said: “It was incredibly forward-thinking of the team at Southampton NHS Treatment Centre to see the benefits of this type of training and thinking – because it doesn’t just help people with dementia.

“Often, when people come into a hospital environment, they might experience confusion caused by an infection or from stress and this training, combined with environmental changes, helps to create a clearer and calmer atmosphere for everyone, as well as helping colleagues to understand that patients may literally not be seeing the same thing as them.”

Claire Evennett, training, development and infection prevention and control lead at Southampton NHS Treatment Centre, said: “We constantly seek to improve the service we provide for patients and their families. We are seeing more and more people who have dementia, and within an ageing population, this is a trend that’s set to continue.

“We want to ensure we can see a situation in the same way as the patient and to know that we have thought of everything necessary to ensure first class aftercare. I think all our patients will benefit from Maizie’s visits and training, as everyone undergoing surgery feels a little stressed and the clearer the environment and the more empathetic the staff, the calmer people will feel.”