Dignity in Dementia is an exciting project to help and support hospital patients with dementia by improving the physical environment on one of Poole Hospital's acute medical wards for elderly people.
Coming into hospital can be a frightening and disorientating time for people with dementia, but research has shown that by improving the physical environment, levels of anxiety and distress can be significantly reduced.
Improving a patient’s surroundings can also make a big difference to their speed of recovery, as well as improving sleep patterns and encouraging appetite.
The project will focus on aspects of the environment such as decor, colour and lighting, and look at how we can change these to improve the well-being of our patients when they stay with us in hospital.
We are very privileged to have received a grant from The King’s Fund to support this work but we’d like your help to raise more funds. We’d also like to hear your views on how we can change things for the better, so read on to find out how you can help us with this exciting and important project, which we hope will pave the way for future work to support people with dementia.
Click here to view photos from our project launch
How you can help
You can support our project in a number of ways:
- Tell us your views! Contact louise.jenkins@poole.nhs.uk or karen.hollocks@poole.nhs.uk and ask for a feedback form to give us your input
- Donate! You can donate to the project by clicking here to visit our JustGiving site. Money given through this site will be donated to the Dignity in Dementia project via the Poole Hospital Charity, but you can rest assured that the money will come to us.
- Get involved! Take part in one of our exciting events (see below for details) or contact us using the email addresses above to find out how you can arrange your own fundraising event.