Dementia Care Home

This week I visited a dementia care home in Stoke on Trent, to deliver a Museum Outreach project. This involved introducing a group of residents to a series of objects from the museum and encouraging them to talk about them.
The groups were very small, so it was very much a one to one environment. This proved to be very stimulating for the residents that I spoke to, as they enjoyed meeting someone new and talking about their past. It is encouraging that this type of activity is taking place in care homes.
Other things I noticed about the home were yellow signs on every door, explaining what was behind them with text and imagery. They also had out of bounds room disguised by the doors being decorated the same colour as the walls. This means that the doors mostly go unnoticed by the residents. The office to the home was open so residents were free to walk in and talk to staff. While I was there staff were heard singing with one of the residents who had gone to pay them a visit.
The home manager also showed us some photographs of a tea dance they had organised for all the residents, and those from two other homes, in a neighboring building. The residents had all enjoyed getting dressed for a party, going somewhere new and many remembered dances they had not done for years. This seemed like a really positive activity for the residents to be involved in.