Pop-up room filled with 1950’s furniture comes to Wirral hospital to help people suffering with dementia

Jan 11 2012 by Linda Foo Guest, Birkenhead News

Pop-up room filled with 1950’s furniture comes to Wirral hospital to help people suffering with dementia

A POP-UP room filled with 1950s furniture has been installed in a Wirral hospital to help people suffering with dementia.

The innovative ‘reminiscence pods’ have come to Arrowe Park Hospital so patients can relive the 1950s with a pop-up living room – complete with authentic furniture and a fully working 1950s television and radio.

Three pods have been installed on the wards, each costing £1,500.

Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust along with Alzheimer's Society and Cheshire and Wirral Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, brought the scheme to improve the care patients with dementia receive.

Arrowe Park is the first hospital in the north west to use this approach.

Tina Long, director of nursing and midwifery at Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, told the News: “We have been doing a lot of work over the past six to 12 months to raise awareness to staff about dementia.

“We have three pods which are portable, they have been introduced to our elderly care wards.

“Each has 1950s style of decor along with an old television and radio – playing music and programmes from the era.

“Very often people with dementia can remember things from the past so these pods aim to give them a familiar environment.

“If a patient with dementia is admitted to hospital they can often become anxious becuase of the unfamiliar surroundings. They can be taken to the pods to help calm them down.

“We hope patients and their families will find it beneficial and help calm people down who are particularly anxious.

“If successful, then we will introduce more of them to other wards at Arrowe Park and Clatterbridge site.”