Featured blog item
Help your NHS
Our NHS services are under significant pressure...
Dementia bus tours homes
Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Integrated Care System (ICS) has launched a dementia experience training programme ahead of Dementia Action Week (15-21 May), to help care home teams improve how they care for residents who have dementia.
Over the coming months the purpose-designed bus will tour more than 50 care homes across Cambridgeshire & Peterborough, offering staff a chance to understand what life might be like for their residents living with dementia.
There are currently more than 10,000 people with dementia in our area. National statistics suggest that around 70% of people living in care homes have dementia or severe memory problems, so it is essential that care home workers understand how to support people with the illness.
The dementia experience offered on the tour bus involves specialist equipment which changes how participants experience and use their senses, including sight and hearing, to simulate how people with dementia may perceive the world around them.
The exciting dementia tour bus experience is one element of a wider programme of work led by NHS Cambridgeshire & Peterborough teams, part of the local Integrated Care System (ICS), to upskill and support care home staff so they can continue to do a fantastic job looking after local care home residents.
Carol Anderson, Chief Nursing Officer at NHS Cambridgeshire & Peterborough, part of the ICS, said:
“With over 10,000 people in our area living with dementia, it is really important that all health and care staff understand the illness and know how to support people affected.
“That’s why we’re so pleased to organise this bus tour, allowing our hard-working care home colleagues to experience what dementia may be like first-hand so that they can better understand and support residents who have dementia.
“Over the coming months hundreds of care home staff will get the opportunity to take part in the tour bus initiative, as part of our wider efforts to support our local care workforce to grow and develop their skills.”