With Dementia Awareness Week in full swing 16 kind-hearted volunteers at Solihull Hospital began their journey to helping to prevent delirium, a common condition affecting up to one in three elderly patients.

Patients with delirium can be confused, agitated, drowsy, less mobile and they can experience frightening hallucinations. Although it’s a short-term condition, the effects can be long-term and extremely distressing, with potentially longer stays in hospital and a higher chance of developing dementia in the future.

Solihull Hospital has its own dementia and delirium outreach team and earlier this year appealed for volunteers to join the team by spending time on wards assisting elderly and frail  patients, encouraging eating and drinking, helping with mobilisation and orientation and supporting activity such as playing card games or doing jigsaws.

The response from the public was fantastic and with it being the Alzheimer’s Society’s Dementia Awareness Week it was the perfect time to invite the 16 new volunteers in for their induction.

Phil Hall, senior nurse for dementia at Solihull Hospital, said: “The name of the project is PREVENTS – it is a delirium prevention programme. This is our second batch of volunteers and we are really overwhelmed by the response. It is already making a real difference to frail and elderly patients as we aim to prevent delirium, which is a serious and common harm in acute hospitals.

“People see volunteering as an opportunity to really make a difference to people’s lives and  many of us will have had relatives or friends who have been touched by dementia and delirium at some point so it is quite a personal thing to many people.

“It is also really about being part of the team in the hospital and having a really clear and defined role which I think the volunteers appreciate.”

Volunteer Carol Davies who has been working on the project said she would encourage more people to get involved.

He said: “I volunteer as part of the PREVENTS project and absolutely love it. We have a structure to our day and make a real difference to the experience and outcomes of the patients who we support. As a PREVENTS volunteer you are really part of the team in the hospital and get to work with some wonderful people.”

If you think you can offer your time and care to support elderly patients, please contact Phillip Hall or a member of the Dementia and Delirium Outreach Team on 0121 424 4277, e-mail phillip.hall@heartofengland.nhs.uk or follow them on Twitter @DADOTSH1.