Dementia Bus gives carehome.co.uk staff insight into life with dementia

The Dementia Bus has paid a visit to Hungerford, delivering two days of dementia awareness training to staff from the UK’s leading reviews site for care homes and home care.

Employees at carehome.co.uk and homecare.co.uk got a taste of what it is like to live with dementia, with the experience mimicking the challenges that people living with dementia face every day.

Gloves, goggles, spiked insoles and headphones were used to give discomfort to the wearer and impair their vision, hearing and mobility.

Staff from the Care Help team, a free care helpline that helps people search for the right care home for their needs, as well as staff from other teams at carehome.co.uk and homecare.co.uk took part in the training.

Paulina Frisby, care help team leader, said: “It was very interesting to have a first-hand view of what it would be like to live with dementia.

“You can see how people with dementia must feel very anxious, confused and overwhelmed. Since going on the training I think I can understand more what people living with dementia are going through. It was really eye opening.

“If anyone does get the chance to do the training, they should, especially if they have family or friends with dementia as they will be able to see what they are going through on a day to day basis and it will change the way they interact with them.”

Kerry Wood, a member of the care help team said: “The training was most interesting and was delivered in a manner which added to the overall experience. It has resulted in a deeper understanding of what people living with dementia experience every day for myself and I am sure that my colleagues would agree.

“The fact that other teams opted to partake in the training was important too. I would highly recommend this training to anyone who is involved with people who are living with dementia.”

The Virtual Dementia Tour was created by Professor PK Beville 25 years ago as she felt there was a lack of empathy towards people living with dementia. Every year, a fleet of Dementia Buses, run by Training 2 CARE, delivers training to over 200,000 people all over the UK.

Ian Chalkley, who carried out the dementia awareness training for staff at carehome.co.uk and homecare.co.uk said: “We visit a lot of care homes to do training sessions with the staff. We often revisit care homes and we notice a real change in the staff who have done the training We also visit home care companies such as Home Instead and Bluebird Care.

“I think everyone should have an insight into how people with dementia feel. It makes them more empathetic and understanding.”

He added: “It is nice to know companies like carehome.co.uk that are not on the frontline of caregiving are thinking outside the box and giving their staff this opportunity to learn more about dementia.”

Juliette Durham, HR manager at carehome.co.uk, organised the training. She explained that the reason behind getting the Dementia Bus in was that “our websites carehome.co.uk and homecare.co.uk are part of the care sector so we wanted staff to make a connection with the people they helping.

“We originally planned to offer the training to just our Care Help team and our Reviews team but then we decided to give the opportunity to the whole of the company and give everyone that level of awareness.”