Real stories

Time for Dementia means future healthcare professionals will have deeper understanding

People living with dementia haven’t always had the best experiences with healthcare professionals, but a groundbreaking scheme is changing that. 

It’s 10 years since Alzheimer’s Society started working with Brighton and Sussex Medical School to improve learning for nursing, paramedic and medical students. 

Since then, Time for Dementia has expanded to 11 universities in the south of England. It also involves a wider range students, from fields including dietetics, occupational therapy, physiotherapy, radiography and speech and language therapy. 

Under the scheme, a pair of students visits a family affected by dementia three times a year, in person or online. They do this for two years as a mandatory part of their course. 

‘We can’t teach the students what these families can,’ says one of the project founders, Stephanie Daley. 

When students build an authentic, meaningful relationship, they carry this with them into their working life and that is so powerful.

The whole person 

Joe Tidswell, a second-year medical student at Brighton and Sussex Medical School, has spent the last year visiting a woman with Alzheimer’s and her husband. 

‘It has been a privilege to sit in someone’s living room and talk to them about their life,’ says Joe. 

For the last four years, Joe has also worked as a health care assistant on a palliative care ward. He’s used to seeing patients with advanced dementia. 

However, he says, ‘You are not seeing people as they were. This scheme has given me the chance to speak to someone at the beginning of their decline and to get to know what they need.’ 

Naeema Austin-Quiery, a second-year dietetics student at the University of Surrey, is at the end of two years of visits. 

‘I have learnt there are so many different types of dementia and everyone reacts differently,’ she says. ‘People are separate from their dementia, and it is important to see the whole person.’ 

There shouldn’t be a one-size-fits-all approach and this programme gives students a chance to look into the lives of people with dementia and their families, and how it affects the family dynamics.

Keen to learn about dementia 

Eliza Kam, who has Alzheimer’s, and her daughter Fiona moved to Bristol from Hong Kong two years ago. They’ve had visits from Chinese occupational therapy students for the last year. 

Fiona says, ‘The students are lovely and keen to learn about dementia. 

‘They are from Hong Kong, so it has been great for Mum to chat with young people speaking the same language and to reminisce about the city where she spent 75 years of her life.’ 

Eliza says, ‘I like the youngsters coming over,’ she says. ‘We do different activities and I really look forward to all the visits.’ 

Family insight 

Peter Chapman and his wife Louise Oliver, in Norwich, have met nursing and paramedic students online for the last 18 months. 

Louise, who has a rare, inherited type of vascular dementia called CADASIL, has enjoyed interacting with the students. 

Peter says it’s been good to give the students an insight into how dementia affects a whole family. 

‘Some students have personal experience of dementia in their family,’ he says, ‘but for most, their only contact is with patients in the artificial environment of the ward.’ 

‘People meet me and don’t see what I go through,’ says Louise. 

But things like planning, using public transport and using digital devices can be really difficult for me, so it has been good to tell the students about that.

Being heard 

Although Time for Dementia has been growing in the south of England, people elsewhere have been able to meet students through online visits. There are also plans to expand to universities in other areas. 

‘When we started out 10 years ago, we never envisaged the programme would have expanded like it has,’ says Stephanie. 

‘I think its success comes from the recognition that it offers a unique opportunity to complement healthcare training. 

‘And it has given people who have had poor health care experiences the opportunity to be heard, so other people don’t go through the same.’