Celebrating wonderful hospital teams really making a difference

butterfly_roomDecember is a good time to celebrate those special people who continuously strive to make hospital visits as safe and calm as possible for people needing memory support.

On 3rd December, Airedale Hospital’s new ED / A & E Department opened – and within it is the new Butterfly Room, designed to minimise stress during emergency care. Those of you who live with dementia, or care for someone who does, will know all too well how challenging A & E visits can be. A & E will never be the most relaxing place, but in this room the ceiling has illuminated pictures of skies and trees,

ceilingthere’s an electronic “aquarium” to watch and listen to and staff can even safely switch off the beeps and screens which can be so distracting, and instead monitor the patient’s readings from outside the room. The room itself has well-soundproofed doors, so that the noise of a hectic department can be avoided, yet the patient can be seen and heard by the staff team. For anyone who – whether diagnosed with dementia or not – needs this sort of care, this facility will be hugely appreciated.

bridgetAt the preview event for the new department, I again couldn’t help noticing that the Chief Executive, Bridget Fletcher, always proudly wears her Butterfly badge on her hospital ID; that really does tell a story, doesn’t it?

Meanwhile, in Blackpool’s Victoria Hospital, the staff of Ward 26 have been using their own time to create a wonderful Butterfly Scheme-themed Christmas tree! Isnaquarium’t it beautiful? It’s not long since that very ward took care of the mother of a friend of mine (although the staff had no idea of that – particularly as I live nowhere near Blackpool!). The lady’s daughter had been telling me about all the stress of hospital admissions elsewhere and then, when her mother was transferred to this wonderful ward, experienced the very best of care. The team have also created a memory tree so that people can write messages on a Butterfly and share those memories with others. Fantastic!

This is a good time of year to thank all those healthcare teams going that extra mile to support patients and families. You really are very special peoplvictoria-hospitale.