According to Alzheimer’s Society, there are currently around 850,000 people living with dementia in the UK. As a leading care provider in specialised care, Minster Care Group has years of expertise through our management and team of qualified healthcare professionals who pledge to offer a comfortable and supportive environment for people living with dementia. In our care homes, our tailored care approach is catered to each resident on admission after studying their health assessment. This tailored care plan is to help each individual in their dementia journey. Our teams include tailored activities, behavioral studies, and work with memory aids.
We deeply understand the impact of dementia on individuals and their loved ones. Hence, in this Dementia Action Week, we take this opportunity to support individuals with dementia and raise awareness about this condition to support our elderly on their dementia journey.
With this blog, we want to highlight important aspects of dementia.
- What does Minster Care Group do to understand dementia?
- Varying stages of dementia
- Our specialist dementia care in our care facilities
- Our lifestyle activities programme suitable for dementia care
What does Minster Care Group do to understand dementia?
Dementia is a complex condition that affects millions of individuals and is most common in the ageing population. It affects cognitive functions like memory, thinking, and behaviour of an individual. This condition is a gradual deterioration of the brain and slows the ability to perform regular chores. Every individual is in varying stages of dementia and our team ensures to tailor care plans accordingly.
Every case of dementia is unique, not all people suffering from dementia progress through the stages at the same rate. The symptoms vary at different stages and our tailored care caters to an individual’s needs in their stages to help them feel empowered and supported.
The stages of dementia are classified as below –
Preclinical stage: This is the early stage of dementia; the symptoms are mild with some discomfort in cognitive functioning.
Mild cognitive impairment: This stage has behaviour changes which can also be mild memory loss that affects an individual’s daily life.
Early stage: At this stage, a person experiences significant cognitive impairment, which can affect speech, problem-solving skills, and organisation. This also makes their daily chores like cooking and cleaning difficult.
Middle stage: During this stage, the symptoms are prominent, and individuals require assistance for daily activities like dressing and mobility. There are many behavioural changes too like irritability, agitation, and impatience. This is the stage where an individual needs physical, mental, and emotional support.
Late stage: This is one of the latest stages of dementia with all the symptoms progressing, taking away an individual’s abilities and requiring 24/7 support and assistance to continue their daily life.
Specialised Dementia Care at our homes
With constantly changing behaviours and complex situations, our team is committed to providing high-quality care and supporting each resident to live the best life. Our dementia-friendly homes are designed to meet specific needs to provide a safe, secure, and comfortable environment promoting well-being and independence. Here is our team’s specialised care approach to helping individuals with dementia :
Person-centred care
Minster’s Care Approach is to identify the unique needs of an individual while treating them according to their needs, preferences, and goals. Our team takes one on one time to understand behaviour, build a relationship of trust for residents to settle in the environment, and give equal opportunities to make choices whenever possible.
Dementia Friendly Environment
For dementia-specific households; wallpapers and reminiscent artwork cater to spark memories and residents to easily navigate around the home. Our homes provide dementia-friendly environments with vibrant interiors and safe to move around.
Tailored care
For individuals with dementia, a tailored care plan is focused on memory care, cognitive stimulation, and behavioural interventions. Our team members are equipped to support and assist them to maintain their quality of life.
Emotional Support
Our team recognises our residents can be at varying stages of their dementia journey and can be feeling a range of emotions including confusion, frustration, anxiety, and irritability. The team members at Minster Homes tackle these situations and emotions by befriending residents, helping them deal with such challenging emotions and distracting them from such overwhelming situations. Our team encourages residents to maintain self-identity and engage in our lifestyle activities programme to provide mental, emotional, and physical support to ease their journey to live life to the fullest.
Our Lifestyle Programme for helping residents with Dementia
Our skilled Activities Team helps individuals with dementia through activities for cognitive stimulation, socialising, and ease emotions.
Reminiscence Therapy
This is one of the successful activities at our homes, the activities team provides residents to remember their memories through pictures, videos, or by bringing up a conversation. This is beneficial for their memory functioning.
Art Therapy
Our art and crafts sessions are our favourite activities at home. It includes painting, drawing, make & mend, and themed decorations. These activities help our residents to relax and ease out overwhelming emotions to enhance their overall well-being.
Music Therapy
Playing old-time classics and tunes has been one of the proactive activities that we do at Minster Homes. Residents sing along and dance, which helps residents with body movements, uplifts their moods, and socialises with other residents.
Gentle Exercises
Our unique approach to organising exercise sessions at home encourages residents with their physical health and cognitive function. We often have chair exercise sessions, outdoor walks (weather permitting), yoga, stretching, and gentle body movement exercises.
Horticulture therapy
Minster Home features lovely garden spaces with seating options. In the warmer months, our team organises indoor and outdoor gardening sessions for residents to enhance sensory stimulation.
Pet therapy
Our team encourages therapy services, family dogs, or any other pets to visit our homes. It stimulates cognitive functioning by feeding, playing, or spending time with animals. It helps to evoke reminiscence, reduce the feeling of loneliness, reduce stress, and improve social skills.
Games and Puzzles
Our team brings unique games and puzzles to help memory stimulation, improve problem-solving and increase engagement.
