Living in a care home: a positive outcome for a person with dementia

This video shows a daughter’s dilemma. Her mother has dementia, but she has her own family to care for and cannot provide the amount of care that her mother needs. She recounts her mother’s life story and describes the reality of the effects of dementia since she was left alone following the death of her husband. There is a positive solution to her dilemma. Her mother moves to a care home which meets her needs and improves the quality of her life. She has a good transition into her new home and her daughter is helped to come to terms with her mother’s move. Her experience demonstrates the importance of a care home being a good 'fit' for an individual. It also shows that good quality care homes for people with dementia can provide a vital service for those who move into them and their families.

Use this video to convince people of the value of high quality care homes for people with dementia. It can be used for training to help improve practices in any setting. It highlights the key areas of improving quality of life for someone with dementia and it shows what good care looks like, which can be comforting. 

Messages for practice

1. It is important that the life story of a person with dementia is known to carers.
2. Taking account of individual tastes and preferences, in religion and music for example, can be critical to enhancing well-being.
3. It is vital that staff interact with a person with dementia as an individual with their own unique history and experience.
4. Activity, in this case gardening and getting out into the community, makes a difference.
5. Staying with the person with dementia in their past; rather than confronting them with reality, will provide reassurance and enhance well-being.
6. Distraction helps. In this video, a colourful mural on the bathroom wall provides a diversion.
    

Who will find this useful?

People with dementia, family carers, all care staff (both in care homes and home care), volunteers and voluntary sector workers, housing professionals, policy makers, social workers, commissioners, regulators, NHS staff from GP.s, and community nurses, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, speech therapists to hospital teams.