Dementia Training At Sycamore Court
Sycamore Court care home in Brentwood Essex, part of the Holmes Care Group will be hosting a Virtual Dementia Tour next week; a scientifically proven method of building a greater understanding of dementia.
Head Office and care home staff will gain an insight of how it feels to experience the physical and mental challenges of dementia, giving them a broader knowledge of the symptoms and the powerful effect it can have on a person’s senses.
There are 850,000 people with dementia living in the UK, with numbers set to rise to over 1 million by 2025, and soaring to 2 million by 2051.
225,000 people will develop dementia this year, that’s one person every three minutes, and approximately 70 per cent of people in care homes have dementia or severe memory problems.
The aim of the Virtual Dementia Tour is to take away people’s primary senses, to let them experience and understand the fear and frustration dementia sufferers go through on a daily basis.
It is hoped the experience, will show staff that a person with dementia is not challenging or aggressive, but could actually be feeling; frustrated, fearful or stressed; lonely or suffering from pain and discomfort; ignored, overlooked and not in control of their life.
The Virtual Dementia Tour shows people how trying to move around and carry out everyday tasks can be a challenge for someone with dementia. The tour aims to provide an idea of the physical and mental problems that someone living with dementia experiences, and how ‘we’, as people with healthy brains can learn to make sense of their behaviour, and be more understanding, empathic and knowledgeable about the symptoms of the disorder.
Managing Director of Holmes Care Group, Sharifa Lakhani comments “The Virtual Dementia Tour is an influential way for our employees to understand what people with dementia experience every day. It provides us with an opportunity to comprehend what we can do to keep our loved ones as healthy as possible, and educe, delay or prevent symptoms of dementia. It also helps us to improve practices within our homes and enhances the quality of care that we provide.”
