Single rooms and open visiting – how do we keep the balance?
- Written by: — UK Lead - Dementia Carer Voices
- Published: 10th November 2017
Tommy shares his experience of single rooms and opening visiting with his mum, Joan.
In Scotland, moves are underway to change the way that people, as well as their families, relatives and friends, access hospitals. For example, the trend in new hospital design, as shown by the new Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, is for single bedrooms rather than open wards. Additionally, Health Boards across the country are looking at how they can make hospitals more accessible by introducing a more flexible approach to hospital visiting.
Thinking back to my experience of caring for my mum, Joan, who was living with Dementia, I feel that these developments could have helped us both. My mum was often quite fearful of noise from people in numbers, new environments and was always less fearful when I was near.
I’d like to think that the introduction of single rooms and open visiting could have resulted in my mum feeling less scared, by enabling me help keep her company and support her with the things that mattered.
My mum would always eat and drink better and feel more comfortable whilst I was around. Being able to be present at these important times would have helped me feel less worried and often scared about how my mum was doing.
I suppose the key question for me is, as these new approaches are rolled out, how do we make implement open visiting and single rooms in a way that truly matters to each unique individual, family and staff member?
As always, there are two sides to every story and I’ve heard this from people I’ve met across Scotland as part of the Dementia Carer Voices ‘Make a Difference Tour’. For some people, single rooms can lead to feelings of isolation or feeling ‘forgotten about’. Other people have told me that it can be overwhelming having visitors all through the day.
In fact, today someone said, “open visiting made me yearn for restful time when I could rest and recuperate with time to myself”. How do we keep the balance? How do we implement open visiting in a way that truly matters to each individual? And how do we make sure single rooms don’t create a new lonely?
Have you had experience of open visiting or single rooms? I would love to hear from you to find out how it worked for you.
Contact Tommy Whitelaw, UK Lead for Dementia Carer Voices
Tommy.whitelaw@alliance-scotland.org.uk
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