Dementia care

The word ‘dementia’ describes a set of symptoms that over time can affect memory, problem-solving, language and behaviour. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common type of dementia.

Dementia affects a large majority of elderly people but is not an inevitable part of aging. People that are under the age of 65 may also have dementia or cognitive impairment.

Some of the signs of dementia are:

memory loss
language and communication issues
mis- understanding judgement
anxiety or depression
mental agility.

Delirium

Delirium is a state of new onset confusion that can happen suddenly and fluctuate over time. Delirium is more common in people living with dementia and those people that have experienced delirium in the past. Please ask our ward staff for a leaflet about delirium or visit the Alzheimer’s society for more information.

Our guidance represents a commitment to ensuring that dementia care is delivered in a person centred, compassionate way, with wellbeing and safety at the forefront. This is done through the six work streams that form part of the University Hospital Sussex dementia strategy.

environment
dementia friendly hospital
workforce and education:
dementia care pathway
communication and collaboration
dementia performance.

Our dementia services

We have specialist dementia nurses and dementia practitioners on all sites within our hospitals. Our aim is to ensure high quality dementia care to all patients living with dementia or cognitive impairment accessing our services. This may be provided in a variety of ways examples include, advice and support to all clinical areas caring for someone with dementia especially if there are complex needs around the dementia or distress, support and guidance for family, cares and loved ones, staff education around dementia.

For our dementia patients, the importance of close relationships with unpaid carers or family members cannot be underestimated.

Our team supports these relationships through our Carer’s Policy and Carer’s Passport – which gives the right to be with a patient at any time of day or night – and our support for John’s Campaign.