As specialists in dementia we recently held a competition for our staff to enter. The competition was a dementia themed quiz with a cash prize of £100 to the best entry. Tracey our trainer/manager was tasked with putting together a challenging but engaging quiz that required participants to research facts surrounding dementia as well as putting together a case study. We wanted to avoid entries coming in that were simply copied and pasted from Google and the case study in particular asked the care worker how they would respond to a challenging situation. The situation was:
‘An 83-year-old lady diagnosed with multi infarct dementia. Lady lives with her husband and the couple are supported by family members. Husband reports that his wife is getting worse and is frequently waking up at night and getting up. She misplaces items and then accuses family members of taking them. Over the last few months, she has started to see young people in the trees in the garden. She is worried in case they fall out of the tree. More recently she is hearing a child crying which she finds quite distressing and has also seen the child down the road. Her relatives are upsetting her when they explain to her that her experiences are unreal. Please explain what you could do to help in this situation enabling the family to understand and to reduce the stress on all concerned (300-500 words)’
As a winner we were looking for:
- Ruling out an underlying cause of increased/acute confusion by contacting a GP
- Checking to see if a medication review is necessary
- Acknowledging that the family members may need some guidance with how to respond in a way that limits distress
- Practical solutions around the home that might help plug the gaps in memory and problem solving
As well as the case study, participants were asked to complete a series of factual questions too.
I am delighted to announce that the winner of the quiz is……
Niamh Carson!
Huge congrats to you Niamh your entry was excellent and clearly well thought through. Your £100 prize is on its way to you
We do have some runners up as these entries did give Niamh some very tough competition:
Katie Stocks
Karen Lewis
Sue Castell
Sharon Millward
We will be giving each of you some individual feedback separately to the email but as runners up you will be awarded £25 for your entries which will be with you today. They were of a very high standard and a pleasure to read. We are impressed with your knowledge and empathy shown in your case studies
Well done to all who entered. We are already thinking of the next themed quiz.
