Our Services A - Z - Dementia and Delirium
About the service
Our Dementia and Delirium Team is based in Southport Hospital and covers both hospitals
Our team consists of
- Hilary, our Admiral Nurse supported by Dementia UK
- Emily and Sophie, our Dementia and Delirium Specialist Nurses
What do we do?
The team supports people living with dementia and/or experiencing a delirium during their hospital admission, as well as their carers and relatives and the staff caring for them.
We signpost and/or refer to community services as appropriate. Our team has developed an alert system within the hospital to ensure that people living with dementia are identified at the beginning of their patient journey, to ensure the appropriate support is offered to them, and any reasonable adjustments can be made to enhance their care during admission.
We provide dementia and delirium training to all staff, and offer this training to our colleagues in health and social care.
We are working towards becoming more dementia-friendly, and our team offers free Dementia Friends Information Sessions to staff. This is supported by the Alzheimer’s Society.
Contact Us
- Email: soh-tr.dementiaanddeliriumteam@merseywestlancs.nhs.uk
- Tel: 01704 704658
Working hours: Monday to Friday from 08.00am to 4.00pm
A useful leaflet can be downloaded here.
- Looking to the future
We are making significant investments in Older People’s Care. We have an ageing population and our local area has a high number of people over 65 years old living here.
We are working on service improvements to further benefit people living with dementia and their families/carers, and those people experiencing delirium during hospital admission.
We are improving both our hospitals with ongoing refurbishment works, which will include dementia-friendly design elements.
We supply Hospital Passports to our patients and carers, so they can provide extra information about themselves that our staff might find helpful during their admission, e.g. what someone likes to eat.
Our team is working towards implementing a musical events calendar for patients, with many local groups generously offering their time and musical skills in exchange for a cup of tea!
We have a number of Pets as Therapy animals who prove very popular with patients, visitors and staff. We understand the benefits of having our furry friends with us when we are unwell and hope seeing our PAT animals gives our patients some comfort.
- Environment
We aim to provide a dementia friendly environment by using visible signage, familiar artwork, appropriate flooring, and consider the needs of patients with dementia when the planning of refurbishments takes place.
- Help us to help your loved one
- Bring a copy of the patient’s dementia/hospital passport with them when they visit hospital. If you haven’t got one ask a member of staff
- If they are admitted to hospital bring their medications/medication list with them
- If you need reasonable adjustments making to your care to support your hospital care, please contact the Matron for Patient Experience or speak to the hospital staff
- Share a patient story with us about the treatment your loved one has received, or tell us about your experiences of the Trust as a carer
- Complete a carers’ questionnaire which will help us to improvement the quality of care of patients with dementia (This form is currently broken and will be updated asap)
- John’s Campaign
John’s Campaign was founded in November 2014 . It comes from the simple belief that family carers should be welcomed as an essential part of patient care. John’s Campaign applies to all healthcare settings, and over 1,000 institutions have pledged their support—but there is a lot yet to be done.
We have pledged to support John’s Campaign, which means we support carers to stay with patients who have enhanced needs and require extra support. Please speak to our staff if you feel this would benefit you or your loved one.
We also offer Carer Cards to identify those carers who have requested to stay with their loved ones during their admission. Please ask our staff for more information.
We also supports carers to accompany their loved ones to theatre, as we know this can be a distressing time. We will support the carer to be present before and after the patient’s theatre visit.
We are signed up to the Dementia-Friendly Hospital Charter, which provides high-level principles of what a dementia-friendly hospital should look like and recommended actions hospitals can take to fulfil them.
- Twiddle muffs: do you or your friends enjoy knitting?
We are grateful for any volunteers that would like to support “twiddle muffs” which aim to lessen agitation for people with dementia and Alzheimer’s. The knitting pattern is available here.
- Make a practical donation
We aim to provide carers that are supporting patients with additional needs with comfort items such as hand wipes, tooth brush, toothpaste, etc. We rely on donations of these items to make up comfort packs. If you would like to donate, please contact the Matron for Patient Experience on 01704 704094.
- Hospital Passport
You can also use this QR code to open a copy on your mobile device
Page last updated on 22nd February 2024