Care home residents mark Alzheimer's Awareness Month

Alzheimer’s is a form of dementia, the loss of cognitive functioning – thinking, remembering, reasoning – which can affect a person’s day to day life and activities. Functions that can be impacted are memory, language skills, visual perception, problem solving, self-management and the ability to focus and pay attention. The number of people living with dementia in the UK is forecast to increase to over 1m.

At Barchester, we have been supporting families with pioneering dementia care in specially-designed, dementia-friendly Memory Lane communities since 1992. We strongly believe people living with dementia should enjoy a fulfilled and happy life, with specialist support to continue doing the things they love every day. All Barchester staff receive dementia care training to ensure we provide the best for our residents, and we embrace the very latest technology and techniques to ensure our residents can live a life that feels comfortable, enriching and connected.

General Manager, Mo Masedi said: “Alzheimer’s and dementia affect many of our residents so all staff receive specialist dementia training to provide person-centred care at the heart of everything we do. We are proud to provide an environment that helps residents to find their way around independently as much as possible, and that residents are happy to call home.”

During Alzheimer’s Awareness Month, residents spent time walking around the grounds of the home and local area to raise money for Alzheimer’s Awareness. Many of the residents within the home joined in with the efforts and made the most of the good weather at the time. Our activities team have also begun creating memory boxes for residents at the home to enjoy. This inspirational idea came about because staff were thinking about those residents who are living with dementia and what they might really enjoy, and they came up with this reminiscence idea.

The memory boxes are different for each resident, the team at Brampton View Care Home will be creating an individual box for each person. Made up like a hamper, the boxes contain all sorts of items relevant to that person and their lives to remind them of where they grew up, the job they did, hobbies, favourite food and drink, and their preferred pastimes. The residents pull out an item and then discuss its relevance to them which brings them a great deal of enjoyment.