A new study on the effects of hospitalisation on people suffering from dementia has found that transferring patients from a traditional hospital ward to a specialised dementia unit can have positive benefits for both patients and staff.
The study examined the benefits of relocating patients suffering from dementia from a general hospital ward to a new 14-bed special care dementia unit at Mount Carmel Hospital in Clonakilty, Co Cork, which is designed for patients needing residential care.
The establishment of the specialist unit involved transforming existing hospital wards into bedrooms with the aim of changing the living space to reflect a person's home, while the corridors were also transformed by painting typical shop fronts in Clonakilty to make them look familiar.
According to the Mount Carmel director of nursing, Carol McCann, some 7,000 of the 38,000 people living with dementia in Ireland today are in residential care, with the majority of these living in general style facilities which are often poorly adapted to compensate for the disability of dementia.
"More than anything else, people with dementia in residential care need to feel safe, secure, occupied, at home and connected to their former lives," said Ms McCann, adding that the transformation of the ward was an attempt to provide such security and familiarity.
"In a frightening, sometimes bewildering world of much uncertainty, they need to be helped negotiate an environment, one which is familiar to them, supportive, makes sense and resonates of home. Sadly for the majority, this is not a reality in the Irish context," she added.
According to Elizabeth Myers, principal researcher at Mercy University Hospital in Cork, who carried out the research, the study captures some of the positive experiences that the relocation has had for the residents, their relatives and healthcare staff employed in the setting.
"For the resident, the move in some cases meant former skills were regained, sleeping patterns improved, with less need for night time medication and functional independence increased.
"In one case, there was a noticeable reduction in agitated/aggressive behaviour.
"For healthcare staff, they now have more time to get to know their residents and their life stories, and more time to involve residents in recreational and individualised activities," said Ms Myers, who was commissioned to carry out the study by the HSE South and Alzheimer Society of Ireland.
"And for relatives, it meant that, in some cases, the number of weekly visits increased, visiting times became more meaningful, and family caregivers felt less strained since they knew their relatives were calmer, less lonely, had more autonomy and were less inclined to want to be taken home," she added.
The study, the first of its kind in the Irish context, will be launched tomorrow in Cork by Prof Murna Downs, chair in dementia studies, Bradford University, who has already hailed it as providing valuable assistance for all health service professionals involved in providing dementia care.