Downe Dementia Team scoop industry award

Downe Dementia Team scoop industry award

19 October 2016

DOWNE Dementia Team has won a prestigious Northern Ireland award.

The team was named Health and Social Care Organisation of the Year at the Dementia Friendly Awards, run by Alzheimer’s Society, at the Europa Hotel in Belfast last week.

It was praised for integrating physical health care with dementia nursing and taking a holistic approach to patient care.

Paula Thompson, team leader, said the multidisciplinary team on the dementia ward in the Downe Hospital, which is a 20-bed unit, recognised the need for patients being assessed for dementia to be treated as holistically as possible.

With hospital stays of up to six months, she said it was common for elderly patients with dementia to develop physical health problems, but being transferred to a physical ward could be disorienting and frightening. 

“We wanted to ensure that patients admitted to the ward and their relatives underwent a positive experience during the time spent there,” Paula said. 

“A plan was put in place to promote all aspects of patient centred care to avoid patients being transferred to a medical ward if they became acutely unwell or required palliative care.

“The ward now benefits from a unique combination of skills by confident nurses who have adapted their skills to respond to the needs of patients. 

“It makes me so proud when I see a mental health nurse confidently taking blood, or a nurse whose training is in physical health care completely confident in caring for a person with dementia.”