Fairmile Grange care home in Christchurch is now offering a revolutionary dementia awareness programme available to local healthcare professionals called The Dementia Champions Training.
The fully immersive experience was initially launched at Great Oaks care home in Bournemouth last year and after the impressive success of the programme being so well received there, the opportunity is being extended to healthcare professionals in Christchurch.
The purpose of the training is to enable people to experience and increase their understanding of how those with dementia behave and therefore how to best help with communicating and connecting with them.
Rachel Dryden, chief executive officer of Encore, said: “Ultimately, the only way to comprehend the effects of dementia is to experience it first-hand.”
What Rachel would go to explain is the revolutionary way of running the programme. During the session, each person is fitted with a full jumpsuit, which has been designed to make the participant experience the physical and sensory hindrances of older age (as modelled by training staff in the featured image- taken by Alaina Morgan).
Rachel also commented: “As a care provider, we see it as our obligation to discover new ways to raise awareness of dementia and the impact it has on a person’s life and their loved ones.”
In its ambition to become a dementia resource for the community, Fairmile Grange aims to offer this training for to the local community in upcoming sessions.
Rachel added: “We hope healthcare professionals, as well as the local community in future training sessions, continue to utilise this opportunity and we look forward to welcoming attendees to our forthcoming sessions.”
The Dementia Champions Training is a complimentary programme and run by Informed Dementia Care.
For more information about Fairmile Grange and The Dementia Champions Training click here.