A new outreach team at Solihull Hospital is helping to improve experiences for patients with dementia and confusion and supporting staff to provide the best possible care.
The Dementia and Delirium Outreach Team at Solihull Hospital, part of the Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust, was launched just before Christmas and has already been receiving positive feedback from staff and patients’ relatives.
The team consists of a senior dementia nurse, Phil Hall, as well as three dementia outreach support nurses, four dementia support workers and one activities and volunteer coordinator.
Phil said: “Our role is to identify people with dementia who use Solihull Hospital and improve their experience while they are in the hospital. We also support their relatives and train and educate staff on complex issues. Patients with dementia are particularly vulnerable in an acute environment.
“We expect a quarter of all patients in the hospital to have dementia and up to a third will suffer some sort of confusion, such as delirium, which is acute confusion which is extremely common and potentially has serious outcomes for patients.
“The biggest part of the job is raising awareness of delirium among staff and carers, ensuring we diagnose and respond quickly. Delirium is the biggest avoidable harm in hospitals and something we are determined to tackle here at Solihull Hospital.”
To help in their work the outreach team have been boosted with significant investment by the Trust including some innovative items which are already making a difference within the hospital.
Phil said: “We have a new fold away table that can go on the wards which patients can have their dinner on and use special crockery. The Trust has invested thousands of pounds in two MyLife giant tablet computers, especially for people with dementia, which they can use to look at their life history.
“We also have pop-up Reminiscence Pods (RemPods), as seen on Dragon’s Den, which is like a 1950s living room and works by turning any care space into a therapeutic and calming environment familiar to patients.
“Also as part of the staff training we have a state-of-the-art age simulation suit where staff can experience what it is like for an older person, with things like vision problems, arthritis, tremors etc.”
Feedback so far for the service has been extremely positive from the wards and relatives. The Dementia and Delirium Outreach Team also works with Bupa’s Arden Lea Grove Nursing Home in Lode Lane as part of the new patient pathway which enables dementia patients to have more appropriate care away from the acute setting.
There is currently a shortfall of volunteers at Solihull Hospital to help with dementia patients and anyone able to give up some of their free time and take on one of these rewarding roles is asked to get in touch.
Phil added: “As part of this project we are keen to recruit volunteers to work alongside the team. We are looking for befrienders to offer company to patients with dementia or, if you have the confidence, as part of our activities team providing one to one small group activities such as reminiscence.
“We offer training, support and the opportunity to do something interesting, valuable and extremely rewarding. If you are interested please call 0121 424 4277 and ask for any of the dementia team and they can talk to you about the role and what it would entail.”
