Today we have launched a new name to describe our accommodation designed for our older customers – Independent Living. Our customers told us that ‘Sheltered Housing’ felt old fashioned and reminded them of a time when a Scheme Warden was in charge and would tell them what to do.

The new name represents what we want our homes for older people to look and feel like, independent living, with support available if needed.

Bill Faichney is one of our Independent Living Coordinators and recently helped a customer who was having trouble due to Vascular Dementia.

“She would get very distressed and anxious over what day and date it was. She had no family support circle and used a Radio Times magazine (opened on a certain page) to tell her what day it was.”

“Unfortunately, she would forget to turn the pages of the Radio Times and be back to square one, often becoming angry with herself, and letting anxiety get the better of her and being reduced to tears.”

Bill really wanted to help and leaped into action.

He researched lots of different technologies and settled on a dementia clock. The dementia clock is ipad sized, with a superbright ‘always on’ display. The display tells users the time, day, month, year and if it’s morning, afternoon or evening. Bill also uses it to set alarms and vocal reminders, such as when to have lunch.

Even better, Bill was able to source one of these clocks for free by finding one on a local Facebook buy and sell page.

Our customer has been using her clock for around 3 months now and absolutely loves it. There is no need to keep the Radio Times on the right page and more importantly no more upset and anxiety about what day it is. In our customers own words “it’s the best thing anyone has done for me”.

Well done Bill.

Published 01/04/2021