26.10.12
Dementia sufferers to benefit from £50m funding
Specially designed care environments for dementia sufferers are to be created, in a bid to help avoid confusion among sufferers and to keep patients calm.
Health secretary Jeremy Hunt has announced that up to £50m funding will be available to NHS trusts and local authorities to help tailor hospitals and care environments to patients with dementia.
Hunt said: “Responding with dignity and compassion to dementia is the only sensible reaction to the urgent challenges we face as our population ages.”
Anna Dixon, director of policy at The King’s Fund, said: “By putting the specific needs of people with dementia first in the way we design wards and care homes it’s possible to make a very big difference to people living with dementia, their families and the staff who support them.”
The scheme follows initiatives taken by dementia care environments such as King’s College Hospital, which removed reflective and patterned surfaces from wards to avoid confusion and anxiety among patients, after findings showed they could be mistaken for water and dirt.
The Marjorie Warren Ward also personalised each patient’s bay and side room with unique colours and artwork, to help them recognise their own spaces.
St Mary’s nursing home in Middlesbrough introduced a similar recognition scheme, plus a lighting system mimicking day/night light patterns, to reduce patient confusion and sleeplessness.
Jeremy Hughes, chief executive of the Alzheimer’s Society, explained some of the benefits of such endeavors: “Two-thirds of people in care homes have some form of dementia and numbers of those with the condition are soaring so delivering quality care across the board is vital.”
The initiative will incorporate suggestions and feedback from dementia patients, their families and carers. It will focus on the following improvements: utilising calming colours; non-reflective surfaces; large-print signs and creating discreet zones to deter anxiety and help with patients’ navigation around wards.
Additionally, high-tech sensory rooms, incorporating lighting, smells and sound as stimuli for dementia patients; large print photos from a range of eras; specially dedicated outdoor spaces; day/night clocks and controllable mood lighting could be introduced to improve patients’ independence and care.
Local areas will be able to bid for funding over the next few months, and projects are expected to begin in April 2013.
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Image shows environment improvements at Bradford Royal Infirmary.