20 March 2017

A second café for people living with dementia is to open at the Trust which runs Shropshire’s two acute hospitals.

The Golden Moments café will open at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital (RSH) on Tuesday 4 April.

It follows the successful launch of the Precious Times café at the Princess Royal Hospital (PRH) in Telford, which is held on the last Tuesday of every month.

Karen Breese, Dementia Clinical Specialist, with volunteers at the Precious Times Cafe at PRH.

The Golden Moments café will be held at the Shropshire Conference Centre at RSH from 3pm – 4.30pm.

Karen Breese, Dementia Clinical Specialist at The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH), which runs the PRH and RSH, said: “We have been delighted at the success of the Precious Times café since we launched it in January. It was always our intention to run a similar café at RSH as soon as we could secure a venue and the volunteers needed to run it and we hope it will be just as successful.

“We are incredibly grateful to Shropshire Conference Centre for offering us the venue and refreshments free of charge.”

The cafés are designed to give patients with dementia, and their carers, somewhere to network at our hospitals rather than having to seek opportunities elsewhere.

Karen said: “The cafés are open to patients, carers and members of the public and are a chance for people to meet others living with dementia and talk about their experiences.”

The cafés are staffed by volunteers, but there will also be a dementia support worker at each session.

Karen said: “When people come to these sessions we will be on hand to give advice and guidance, and people will be able to share their experiences in our hospitals – good and bad – so that we can learn from them and continue to make improvements in the care we provide.”

The cafés are the latest initiative by SaTH to improve care for patients living with dementia.

Other initiatives include:

  • The Butterfly Scheme, which uses a butterfly symbol to quickly and discreetly identify patients with dementia or confusion.
  • The Carer’s Passport, encouraging carers to visit and stay with patients living with dementia in order to provide reassurance, support, and help with eating and drinking and other day-to-day activities.
  • This Is Me, a leaflet that people living with dementia can use to tell staff about their needs, preferences, likes, dislikes and interests.
  • Twiddlemuffs, thick hand muffs with bits and bobs attached to the inside and out which are designed to provide a stimulation activity for restless hands for patients with dementia.