November 25th. Yesterday I accompanied a clinical psychologist on a visit to Ward 23 at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Gateshead. Only couple of years old, it was designed specifically for older people with mental issues who have been brought to hospital with some kind of physical problem, the ward is one of only three in the country set up in this way and is a bit of an experiment. More commonly hospitals would not separate so distinctly those with and without mental conditions meaning that a whole ward could be disrupted by a few people with dementia.
Out of the 24 patients on Ward 23 most seemed to have some kind of dementia and were still just about able to walk. Several wandered up and down the corridor looking lost, others sat in a group waiting for an imaginary bus to take them home. The nurses and auxiliaries I met seemed kind and caring and were doing what they could to keep on top of things. The doctors knew each patient's case intimately and were working to get them out of hospital as quickly as possible. They objected to recent reports about over-sedation of the elderly in care, saying on their ward it was only used as an absolute last resort. However there are only ever between 4 and 8 nurses on duty at any one time, when in an ideal world you would probably want 1 on 1 care for many of the patients. One of the nurses explained how difficult it is to know what to do with the patients, "Look at them" she said, pointing to the group hanging around expectantly in the corridor. "They're all ready and waiting to leave right now. There's no way to persuade them that they're not going anyway..."
I listened to the psychologist talking to a patient who didn't have dementia but was feeling very low. She was clearly aware of the poor state of her own health and there wasn't much he could say to change her heart. I couldn't help comparing her in her entirely justifiable depression with the joking and flirtatious lady with dementia who held my hand while lining everyone up to catch the bus for the tenth time. Without wishing dementia on anyone, it does at least offer the potential blessing of sparing the elderly sufferer the awareness of their own predicament.
I hope to be able to film on Ward 23 because I think it's somewhere that graphically shows how difficult a thing dementia is to deal with, particularly on an institutional scale: It's a 'state of the art facility', the staff are good and as well trained and experienced as any you will find anywhere, but it doesn't mean they don't struggle to cope with the harsh reality of dementia.
It's going to be incredibly complicated to get the necessary consents from the patients to film there although Gateshead Health Trust does seem to be behind the project.
Out of the 24 patients on Ward 23 most seemed to have some kind of dementia and were still just about able to walk. Several wandered up and down the corridor looking lost, others sat in a group waiting for an imaginary bus to take them home. The nurses and auxiliaries I met seemed kind and caring and were doing what they could to keep on top of things. The doctors knew each patient's case intimately and were working to get them out of hospital as quickly as possible. They objected to recent reports about over-sedation of the elderly in care, saying on their ward it was only used as an absolute last resort. However there are only ever between 4 and 8 nurses on duty at any one time, when in an ideal world you would probably want 1 on 1 care for many of the patients. One of the nurses explained how difficult it is to know what to do with the patients, "Look at them" she said, pointing to the group hanging around expectantly in the corridor. "They're all ready and waiting to leave right now. There's no way to persuade them that they're not going anyway..."
I listened to the psychologist talking to a patient who didn't have dementia but was feeling very low. She was clearly aware of the poor state of her own health and there wasn't much he could say to change her heart. I couldn't help comparing her in her entirely justifiable depression with the joking and flirtatious lady with dementia who held my hand while lining everyone up to catch the bus for the tenth time. Without wishing dementia on anyone, it does at least offer the potential blessing of sparing the elderly sufferer the awareness of their own predicament.
I hope to be able to film on Ward 23 because I think it's somewhere that graphically shows how difficult a thing dementia is to deal with, particularly on an institutional scale: It's a 'state of the art facility', the staff are good and as well trained and experienced as any you will find anywhere, but it doesn't mean they don't struggle to cope with the harsh reality of dementia.
It's going to be incredibly complicated to get the necessary consents from the patients to film there although Gateshead Health Trust does seem to be behind the project.
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Katie Gormley pointed me to the animation Harvie Krumpet http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouyVS6HOFeo in which an Alzheimer's home has a mock bus stop in the garden to keep the patients busy. see 16"20'
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