Care professionals at Honest Senior Care were put into the shoes of someone living with dementia

Some of the typical symptoms associated with Dementia

Care professionals at Honest Senior Care recently attended a simulation course which was based on giving people an insight as to what it is like to live with Dementia - The Dementia Bus.

What is the Dementia Bus?

The Dementia Bus is a virtual simulator that provides people (who may work within the care sector or family and friends) a real life experience of what it would be like to live with dementia for 10-15 minutes.

The bus is made up of a range of different equipment that imitate the daily struggles that people who live with dementia face on a daily basis.

Participants wear special equipment, such as gloves, headphones, dark glasses, and spiky insoles, to distort their senses and simulate physical symptoms.

They are also then given a range of instructions to carry out whilst they have the equipment on, whilst flashing lights and loud noises obstruct their paths.

The Dementia Bus was Invented 25 years ago in America by Professor PK Beville.

Breakdown of the equipment, what was involved and what it represents.

Our Trainer Stewart started out by being very rude and unprofessional, but unbeknown to us this was all part of the training process he soon explained to us after each group participated in the dementia bus.

Once we had a headset, glasses, gloves and spiked insoles in our shoes the bus went dark and we were led into the main area of the bus led by the trainer. There was a range of flashing lights and an audio that was played to us. The audio was drowning and the trainer gave us a list of tasks to do which included:

·       setting a table for 4 people,

·       putting a shirt on and doing the buttons,

·       writing a letter to your family and

·       finding a matching pair pf socks.

The instructions that were given you had to really listen to what he was trying to tell you, some may have got the instructions and others did not have a clue and ended up doing something different.

We were then sat down and the trainer pretended to feed us without any warning so our natural reactions were to move him away and keep mouths closed.

After this he turned the lights on and asked us to remove our equipment.

Stewart asked how we found it and we answered his questions.

Stewart explained why he was so off and rude to us and this was because some people do not understand dementia and will be oblivious on how to treat a dementia patient and understand the world that they live in.

The Equipment used

Spiked Insoles: The spiked insoles were used to make us feel that our senses were being overloaded, and stimulate the physical symptoms that a dementia sufferer will feel. This is called Peripheral Neuropathy- what we experienced was like pins and needles in our feet.

Footwear that could help are memory foam shoes e.g. sketchers.

Thick Garden Gloves: The use of the gardening gloves was to make us feel the loss of touch. Although this sense is going or has gone, we still need to make our clients, family members or friends have a sense of purpose, replace buttons with velcro on a shirt/ top for them to do themselves as its much easier for them, and also providing them with large handled cutlery for mealtimes.

Vision- Sunglasses are handed out to each participant which mimic the effects of macular degeneration.

This debilitating eye condition causes people to lose central vision, usually in both eyes, making reading and writing very difficult.

It also makes some colours completely indistinguishable from one another.

Always face the person front the front and not from the sides.

Use high contract colours, red blue and orange are great colours to use especially meal times.

Neutral coloured food on a white plate will blend together and the person will not be able to see this, using blue or red plates will help these foods to stand out and people are more likely to eat more.

Use of flash cards if people are non verbal to give the directions, choice of food and activities.

Audio- This could be one of the hardest parts for any of the trainees.

The headphones are designed to play a range of different noises, everyday sounds that could cannot be distinguished by a dementia sufferer.

A dementia sufferer would not be able to cope with the level of background noises as well as people talking if there is too many in a room. This can cause anxiety and distress to the person.

The tips below are from a Trainer who runs the dementia course, these are taken from the following website from their training day,

https://www.royalfree.nhs.uk/news/staff-enter-world-dementia-patients 

John the trainer’s top tips:

·       Smile at the person with dementia and speak in a friendly tone of voice. Try to stand/sit in front of them or, if they are in a bed or wheelchair, come down to their level and stay in front of them where they will be able to make you out a little better. Introduce yourself each time.

·       Music is really important – try and find the music that they love and can recall. Children and animals can also help people with dementia to feel calm.

·       Recommend that if families have to come altogether they leave one at a time so as to reduce agitation and ask them not to say goodbye. Otherwise the person with dementia will want to leave with them and could become agitated.

·        A zimmer frame could help someone walk better because it enables them to take the weight off often painful feet. Why not help a patient ‘pimp up’ their zimmer frame so it becomes theirs.

·       Find out as much as you can about your patient. It will really help you to have some conversation-starters up your sleeve. Remember they may view themselves as a 25-year-old so try and find out what age they think they are and try to relate to them in that way.

·       Experience a taste of the training for yourself.

Reviews from Honest Senior Care

I thought it was great giving perspective on the physical and senses which people with dementia experience there was a 15 minute experience and a 45 minute debrief to share further insight into living with Dementia- Andy

The dementia bus is a fantastic experience. You get to learn a little of what its like on a day to day basis for somebody that has dementia. It puts a lot of situations you may come up against with clients into perspectives. You can then come away with ideas on how to approach things differently if you have the opportunity to go whether your carers or family members it is truly worth your time as you will understand so much more afterwards- Jacqueline

The phrase “Being in someones else’s shoes” was 100% the experience I had on the dementia bus. Once the equipment was on and we were moved into the room it felt unnerving and distressing. We have lovely clients with Dementia and it really gives an insight to how they might be feeling and thinking back on certain things they do we can try and  piece together why they might be doing these things- Justine