Dementia items

The Older People’s team provides mental health assessment and interventions (or treatments) predominantly for clients experiencing mental health problems who are over 65.

They provide a service for people who have functional mental health needs (such as depression and anxiety) or organic needs (such as Dementia). Patients are seen in clinics, in their own homes, residential or other care settings by community mental health nurses and support workers. They also provide support and advice for carers and family members.

Occupational therapists within this service work with people who have dementia. “Many ofour dementia patients require helpful devices, such as clocks or electronic devices, to aid their independence” said Sue Doorbar, Associate Practitioner Occupational Therapist. The devices can also have a calming and soothing effect on our clients which can reduce challenging behaviours caused by Dementia.”

However, these devices are often not available through the NHS or Social Services. They can also be expensive for our patients to buy and may not fully meet their needs, or they may find that they need a slightly different product.

“We were finding that patients were reluctant to buy a product that they’d not tried. To help them make a more informed choice we wanted to create a ‘Try before you buy’ library of devices,” said Sue. “People with dementia who do not have any insight will be unlikely to buy an item initially, but will once they have seen the benefit.

Health Stars were able to fund devicesfor this library to help support the delivery of patient care within this service.“Funding equipment that NHS budgets do not cover is another example of how your donations help to enhance patient care across the Trust,” said Anita Green, Health Stars Charity Manager.

“A lot of the patients’ families have found the new device library very useful, especially if they don’t live near their loved one, as they can then order the product if it has been beneficial,” said Sue Doorbar.

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