Dementia service relaunches in Wolverhampton

Dawn Southey, senior advanced nurse practitioner lead for dementia/delirium at The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust (RWT), leads a three-strong team with healthcare assistants Donna Cattell and Sharon Salmon.

Based at New Cross Hospital, the trio provide dementia reviews to patients and offer support to carers in supporting their loved one while in hospital or preparing to be discharged.

The new team currently sees between 10 to 30 patients a day, depending on how many are admitted and also require support.

Not all in-patients with dementia require daily input, but once the team is aware of them, Dawn, Donna and Sharon visit the wards to check on them.

“My role will help to strengthen the link between hospital and community services and will help work alongside other health partnerships in shaping dementia care,” said Dawn.

“My aim is for RWT to continue be a dementia-friendly trust and my team will work hard for this.

“As an ageing population, every one of us will have contact with someone who has dementia and it’s important we realise dementia is not a normal part of ageing.

“It’s important when caring for patients with dementia you get to know as much as you can about them either from themselves firstly and/or their family/carers.

“They should be treated like any other patient and a smile and a calm manner will go a long way.

"Patients should be engaged – include them as much as possible in their decision-making and don’t make choices for them without asking first.”

The service has been relaunched as the consultant nurse from the previous team retired and the remaining staff member left to work in the community.

Patients diagnosed with dementia attending the hospital are either identified on clinical portal – the administration system – or from a handover when the team visits the wards.

The team aims to identify the patient on TeleTracking instead – the electronic patient status board on display in each ward – and they will have a forget-me-not flower icon alongside their name.

The team also wants to develop and promote dementia champions across the trust, supporting education and training.