GUESTS to a south coast care home will experience what it’s like to live with dementia, thanks to a revolutionary training course.
Hamble Heights, in Fareham, will host a day-long Virtual Dementia Tour which uses specially designed clothing, equipment and sounds to simulate the effect of living with mid-range Alzheimer’s.
The course, run by Training 2 CARE Ltd, is the only medically and scientifically proven method for a healthy brain to encounter what dementia is truly like.
The home, run by Encore, is inviting local healthcare professionals and support groups along to the special training day as part of its campaign to become a dementia resource for the entire local community.
Encore CEO Peter Curtis said the Virtual Dementia Tour would change the way both healthcare professionals and family members thought about dementia.
He said:
“This is a truly ground-breaking course that allows a person, even if just in a small way, to empathise with the feelings and sensations someone experiences when they are living with dementia. Dementia is not -only about memory loss, it deprives all the senses and can severely affect vision, hearing and touch creating a world of fear and confusion. We want to offer this training experience to our local healthcare professionals as we are confident it will challenge thinking about the illness and further improve the care we all want to provide to people living with dementia.”
The invite-only training day will take place on November 26 at Hamble Heights care home, Botley Road, Southampton.
Virtual Dementia Training has been experienced by 1.2 million people in 17 different countries across the world but is relatively new in the UK.
Peter added that staff at Hamble Heights had undergone the training themselves earlier in the year and it had directly improved the care the home was providing.
He said:
“We are now able to recognise the environment, the people and the situations in the same way that our residents with dementia identify circumstances. Equipped with this knowledge we can work with these challenges to make life at Hamble Heights more enjoyable and comfortable for our residents. Everyone working in dementia should experience this training – it will transform the way they provide care.”
ENDS
For media enquiries contact Alistair Clay, Arc Seven Communications, t – 01373 800 707, m – 07919 574180, e – alistair.clay@arcseven.co.uk
