Tag Archives: dementia

Norfolk charity to pioneer care home volunteers scheme

September 6, 2013   Carers, dementia, Norfolk, Older care

Norfolk charity to pioneer care home volunteers scheme

Volunteer Mary Knights, right on one of her visits to see Thorpe St Andrew pensioner Beryl Forkes. Photo: Steve Adams. Volunteer Mary Knights, right on one of her visits to see Thorpe St Andrew pensioner Beryl Forkes. Photo: Steve Adams.

Thursday, September 5, 2013
5:36 PM

A new scheme being pioneered by a Norwich-based charity could see the lives of care home residents enriched by visiting volunteers.

The programme will see volunteer activity coordinators placed in homes to get residents relieve pressure on care staff and allow unpaid workers to take responsibility for getting residents involved in social activities.

Norfolk County Council and Voluntary Norfolk, the two bodies behind the scheme, believe it could not only help older people to get more out of life but help the next generation of professional carers to develop.

The coordinators will start work at some private care homes in north Norfolk next month, and though they will be specifically trained for the role, they will not replace paid staff or do any of their duties.

Linda Rogers, Voluntary Norfolk’s head of operations, said: “While placing volunteers in private care homes is something of a new step, many of Voluntary Norfolk’s existing volunteers already help older people in the community with social and leisure activities, so to some extent the new scheme is an extension of something that we know works well and is greatly appreciated.

“The new scheme will benefit the residents, the volunteers themselves and, we hope, the caring profession in years to come.”

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Almost 300,000 people who suffer dementia only venture outside once a week

September 3, 2013   Alzheimer’s, Carers, dementia

Dementia: hundreds of thousands who rarely go outside

Almost 300,000 people who suffer dementia only venture outside once a week at the most and tens of thousands have given up doing so altogether, a study has found.

 

Hundreds of thousands of dementia sufferers rarely go outside, a study suggests
 

By , Social Affairs Editor

7:00AM BST 03 Sep 2013

Research by the Alzheimer’s Society highlighted how people suffering dementia feel increasingly trapped in their homes because of the difficulties of getting around.

The study called for a radical redesign of Britain’s cities – from shops to public transport – to accommodate growing numbers of people with conditions such as Alzheimer’s as the population ages.

It included a rare poll of dementia sufferers, completed with the help of carers, which found that more than two thirds are reluctant to venture outside for fear of becoming confused and getting lost or difficulties using transport or shops.

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Rooms worth remembering are set up at hospital

August 29, 2013   Alzheimer’s, Carers, dementia

FOUR pop-up 1950s living rooms worth £4,500 have been bought by Burton’s Queen’s Hospital to help elderly patients with dementia.

Thursday, August 29, 2013

Derby Telegraph

The reminiscence pods, known as RemPods, contain decade-appropriate décor, furnishings, period newspapers and magazines, a television playing recordings of old black and white shows and an old-style radio.

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    The RemPods can act as a talking point to help people with dementia.

Patients and visitors to the hospital were first shown a RemPod during national Dementia Awareness Week in May this year, when one was set up in the main corridor.

This demonstration led to Burton’s hospitals’ League of Friends’ decision to buy RemPods for the trust’s three hospital sites – Queen’s, Samuel Johnson Community Hospital, in Lichfield, and the Sir Robert Peel Community Hospital, in Tamworth – and they are due to be delivered next week.

The remaining three will go to the two other hospitals.

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