A hospital has set up a number of 1950′s style rooms in a bid to help dementia sufferers remember lost memories.

The portable rooms which are approximately 5m by 3m feature retro style wallpaper, furniture, and even newspapers containing authentic fifties headlines.

In addition, patients are also played familiar songs from years gone by and are able to watch films from previous decades with the hope of offering some comfort and familiarity to those who are confused and suffering from memory loss.

Bristol Royal Infirmary is the first hospital to trial the rooms and have built and kitted them out using a £175,000 grant from WRVS.

The hospital hopes that the rooms will encourage patients to sit and talk to nurses about what they remember, hopefully bringing about a sense of calm.

The new scheme is also looking to integrate volunteers with the hospital ward team, and will be piloted across a couple of wards during the next six months before being rolled out across the city centre hospital trust if it proves a success.

For information about dementia, please visit our fact-sheet 

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We have always known that prevention is better than a cure, so now a team of dementia experts have set out to do just that – spot the signs of the disease and treat them before the symptoms begin to set in.

As the sixth leading cause of death in the UK and with an estimated 750,000 people currently affected, dementia could at some point in the not so distant future become somewhat of an epidemic.

With that in mind a team of researchers will be coming together at a new centre at University College London to see if they can find a way of preventing the disease before it really begins to develop.

The team of experts will be looking into neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s, with a view to finding treatments which will slow or halt the progression of the disease so they can apply them as early as possible.

“These treatments must then be offered as early as possible, when the minimum of irretrievable neuronal loss has occurred, in order to have maximum impact on loss of cognitive and neurological function.” Said expert Professor Nick Fox from UCL’s Institute of Neurology.

Professor Clive Ballard from the Alzheimer’s Society went on to say that even though around one in four 75-year-olds have evidence of Alzheimer’s proteins in their brain, there is nothing wrong with them and they have not yet displayed any symptoms.

“And it’s known that the signs appear 10-15 years before the symptoms.” He added.

Instead of focussing their efforts on researching treatments for patients who are already affected, the disease centre at UCL will be the first of its kind to instead investigate preventative treatment.

Being diagnosed with dementia and living with the condition can bring about many difficult emotions. Often, sufferers find it difficult to understand what is happening to them, and family members feel that they are slowly losing a person to whom they are very close. Counselling offers both sufferers themselves and their family the opportunity to speak openly and honestly about their experiences of the condition and ways in which they can move forward.

If counselling for dementia sounds like something that may be of interest to you, please visit our homepage and use the search tool to locate a qualified professional in your local area.

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The Alzheimer’s Society are calling for dementia checks on the NHS when individuals reach 75.

According to the Alzheimer’s Society there are 750,000 people in the UK suffering with dementia with many cases going undiagnosed and many individuals not receiving the care they need.

In order to combat this growing number and provide better care for sufferers, leading charity the Alzheimer’s Society have recommended that the NHS offer check for dementia when people reach 75.

With numbers set to soar to more than a million by 2021, the Alzheimer’s Society say it is essential we identify those who need help quickly and efficiently, and the charity’s director of research Clive Ballard says that a diagnosis is fundamental to ensuring the right treatment and care are given.

“Really the only way we’re going to improve identification is through effective screening, and probably the right time to do that screening is over the age of 75 once dementia starts to become more common”. He said.

Ballard is proposing that individuals be offered a cognitive test at their local doctor’s surgery with questions based on time, date, place, memory and understanding which would later be backed up by an interview with a relative or carer.

If dementia is suspected, patients would then be referred to a specialist for a full assessment.

The British Medical Associations Dr Laurence Buckman says that though the screening is a good idea, many doctors would struggle to find the time and it would mean less time for other services.

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Care services minister Paul Burstow has recently announced the launch of a new government campaign which hopes to increase awareness of the early symptoms and signs of dementia.

According to research and statistics, almost 400,000 individuals in England may not be receiving the proper help they need because they have not yet been officially diagnosed.

At the moment there are a huge number of people who overlook what could be the early signs of dementia. Memory loss can often be put down to old age and ‘senior moments’ when actually it is an indicator of something more serious. It is at this early stage that treatment could be most effective and this is why the government is hoping that the new £1.2 million advertising campaign (which is being piloted in the north-west and Yorkshire and Humber) will reach many of these people.

Mr Burstow reinforced the campaigns important message by stressing that if you are worried you are showing symptoms then you should seek help as soon as possible.

‘Being diagnosed with dementia won’t make the condition worse, but leaving it untreated will.’ he said.

If either yourself or a loved one have been diagnosed with dementia and you are struggling to come to terms or cope with the effects of the condition then you may find it helpful to talk to a counsellor. For further information about dementia counselling please visit our fact-sheet, or to contact a counsellor to discuss the matter directly, please use the search tool located on the homepage of this site.

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Findings included:

Head of policy at the Alzheimer’s Society, Andrew Chidgey, has said these findings have left experts feeling concerned.

Patients with dementia who are admitted for other reasons, can find themselves neglected by the ward staff or indeed having common symptoms of dementia such as aggression and agitation misinterpreted.

Care services minister Paul Burstow has said there can be no excuses for these shocking findings and he added that the government has already set out ways in which hospitals must take action to improve the care of people with dementia.

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1. Firstly it is important to understand how dementia differs from normal forgetfulness. Dementia is a gradual loss of memory which seems to worsen over time and it is usually associated with changes in personality and often an inability to care for oneself. Unlike dementia, normal forgetfulness will not usually have an effect on daily life, though when symptoms first begin the changes can seem similar.

2. Additional symptoms can include disorientation and personality changes. Often a sufferer will have increased irritability and may have difficulty concentrating and understanding new ideas.

3. A lack of personal hygiene and general self-care and unexplained weight loss may also be indicators.

4. If you are concerned that a relative may be suffering with dementia then the earlier you visit the GP for a diagnosis the better. Not all memory related issues are caused by dementia so a quick diagnosis means there is more opportunity for the problem to be resolved.

For more information about dementia please click here.

A recent inquiry conducted by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Dementia has taken a look into how funds could be spent more effectively in order to try and keep the spiralling cost of caring for dementia patients under control.

The report highlighted some successful money saving programmes which are already underway in certain areas of the country. For example, the Doncaster programme, uses a care home liaison team which has cut hospital admissions by 75 per cent in a year.

Another money saving programme which was highlighted was a Leeds-based mental health liaison service which had reduced hospital admission and in some cases meant patients could be discharged earlier (the average length of hospital stays was reduced by 54 per cent, saving 1,056 bed days per year).

Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Dementia, Baroness Sally Greengross has stressed that as the number of people with dementia rise, the financial burden will only increase and this is why it is essential that money is spent more wisely.

“We want people to share ideas and practical examples so that the NHS, local authorities and others can deliver the best care at the right price.” She said.

A report conducted by the Alzheimer’s Society back in 2009 suggested that £80m a year could be saved if the average hospital stay of a dementia sufferer was reduced by just one week.

In addition to this, research has also found that if the use of anti-psychotic drugs was reduced by two-thirds, this would save an estimated £55m every year.

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According to the report, only one fifth of hospitals had implemented a system to ensure that members of staff knew which patients had dementia and how they were affected. In addition to this, a third of patients did not have a nutritional assessment when admitted and only 41 per cent were given a mental test, both of which are considered to be good practice in dementia care.

The researchers believe the lack of specialist care in some hospitals to stem from a deficiency in the proper training, with only one in 20 hospitals making dementia training a compulsory requirement.

The review team is working on certain recommendations which they hope will improve the system if they are implemented. It is thought that a key suggestion will be that of hospitals providing mandatory training for their staff in a bid to better cope and prepare for the rising rates of dementia.

Paul Burstow, Care Service Minister said: “There can be no excuses for these shocking findings. We know what good quality dementia care looks like. None of this is rocket science. There needs to be senior staff leadership on dementia in every hospital to make it a reality.”

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As it stands many cases go undiagnosed simply because sufferers are reluctant to seek medical help. The most recent NHS statistics show that 249,463 people in England have been diagnosed with dementia by their GP, although according to Alzheimer’s Society there are actually around 575,000 sufferers.

Head of policy at the Alzheimer’s Society, Andrew Chidgey has expressed concern about the low diagnosis rates in England and has said more needs to be done to increase understanding of dementia amongst the public and GPs to ensure swift and timely diagnoses are made.

It is thought that the low number of diagnoses is partly due to a lack of dementia training which is available for GPs, meaning that it is rare for an individual to be referred to memory clinics or special services which could offer treatment.

Researchers also found that many people who are concerned about memory problems are putting of paying a visit to their GP because of low awareness of the early signs of dementia. If you or someone you know are concerned you may be suffering from symptoms indicative of dementia then it is important you visit your GP as soon as possible, as they will be able to provide you with a professional diagnosis, support and medical care.

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Figures from the Alzheimer’s Research Trust state that there are currently around 820,000 people suffering from dementia in the UK, a number which is only expected to dramatically increase over the next decade.

The government has also said the number of people receiving continuing care has risen by almost two thirds in the past three years and guidelines have now been issued to primary care trusts (PCTs) detailing how they should assess the continuing care needs of people with dementia.

Barbara Pointon, from Dementia UK and the Alzheimer’s Society, said: “What’s happening with NHS continuing health care is it’s getting more and more difficult to get in the first place, and when people with dementia move into the advanced stage and need more care, it’s being taken away from them.”

Richard Humphries, from the health think tank, told the BBC “The system is increasingly broken and it will struggle to cope with the rising tide of people with dementia and people will become more dissatisfied with it.

According to a spokesperson from the Department of Health, the overall number of people receiving NHS funded continuing care had risen from 31,000 at the end of March 2007 to about 51,000 at the end of September.

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