Reaching out to people with dementia

This article supports the feature entitled Experiences of dementia, published on pages 6 and 7 of the 7 September issue of RCN Bulletin.

Former teacher Barbara Hodkinson cared for her mother, who had dementia, for 13 years before she sadly passed away earlier this year.

During that time Barbara gained a unique insight into the care of people with dementia in acute settings.

What she observed exposed failures in the understanding of a condition which, as the population ages, will present increasing challenges to the nursing profession. The experience led her to develop a training package for hospital staff.

The Butterfly Scheme was first trialled in February last year and has since been adopted by 16 hospital trusts across the UK.

It incorporates a discreet butterfly symbol to help identify people who want their symptoms of dementia to be known to hospital staff and an accompanying training package to assist with delivering a five-point targeted response. A carer sheet is also available.

To find out more about the scheme and how to contact Barbara, take a look at a flyer (Word 91KB).