Dementia Training

I went on a Dementia Training course this week with Stoke on Trent City Council. It wasn't really what I was expecting, as I'm going to be doing work at a dementia care home I thought it might deal with how to behave in certain situations, what to say and what not to say etc... In fact, the trainer explained a lot about the different types of dementia, which was actually really interesting for me.

He mentioned some work that they are doing in Stoke at the moment where they create Life Story Books, encouraging family to bring in images and record stories of a resident's past, these are then put together in Windows Movie Maker and played for a resident during times of stress. They have found that this works really well as a comforting technique.

Worryingly the trainer mentioned a few facts:

40-50% of GPs have no training in diagnosing dementia. Many still using the Mini Mental State test, which is a series of questions I have come across before in my work.

750 000 people have dementia in Britain (thought be be an underestimation as does not include the 18000 that are under 65)

In 2010 that will be 870 000, reaching an estimated 1.2 million by 2050.

Yellow is the last colour in the spectrum that dementia suferers lose.