Innovative digital platform piloted on ward for people with dementia
NHS staff have been trialling an innovative new platform with patients at a specialist dementia ward in Worcestershire.
Life Stories Herefordshire and Worcestershire is a ground-breaking new platform designed help digitally capture personal life stories.
Evidence shows that developing life stories promotes wellbeing, connection and inclusion, especially for older people and people living with dementia and helps people to come together over shared memories and experiences.
The platform is currently being piloted as a wellbeing and communication tool for patients on Meadow Ward in Bromsgrove, a unit providing specialist inpatient care to people with dementia from across Worcestershire.
For people being supported by carers or healthcare professionals, having easily accessible information about their lives and what matters to them is known to improve care and enhance relationships with staff.
Dr Julie Achiampong, Clinical Psychologist for Meadow Ward said: “The life story platform can support conversations about memories the person can still recall and share with others and therefore supports the person’s wellbeing.”
Life Stories was launched last summer by Herefordshire and Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust, in partnership with Worcester City Council and their ‘Know Your Place’ platform.
Now, together with the Association of Dementia Studies at Worcester University, they are inviting people to share their experiences of using the platform.
“Obtaining feedback is essential for ensuring that the platform meets the needs of the people using it and allows us to make any required changes. It also provides evidence for its utility, which can lead to wider application of the platform” states Dr Natasha Lord, Lead Clinical Psychologist for Older People’s Mental Health Services
The platform is open to everyone in Herefordshire and Worcestershire, and enables users to develop a free online life story book that can include the voice recordings of loved ones and clips from YouTube of favourite songs or TV programmes.
Those wishing to provide feedback on the platform are invited to complete the online survey which closes on 10th February 2023 via https://ucw.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/lshw. The website itself also allows users to give feedback.
To find out more and view the platform please visit https://life-stories.hacw.nhs.uk/.