There has been lots of talk in the press about the “forgotten victims of Covid” referring to school children and their education. Without doubt, they need more support and the make-shift homeschooling was no replacement for in school learning.
Working in the care industry we feel those suffering with dementia have truly suffered during the pandemic. If you read the research on dementia and reducing the affects, you will see the majority of advice and research shows the benefits of a routine and socialisation, both of which have been taken away to protect the vulnerable from catching COVID.
It’s a double-edged sword – on the one hand we need to protect people from catching COVID and potentially dying, however for those with dementia the loss of routine and socialisation may increase their dementia symptoms. In fact, the findings of a survey conducted by the Alzheimer’s Society of people with dementia and their carers, stated 82% of people reported an increase in symptoms among people with dementia after the March 2020 lockdown.
This was attributed mainly to a lack of cognitive stimulation and loss of routine. In the lockdown environment, we are no longer able to take part in stimulating or meaningful activities such as attending support groups or walking groups and are therefore limited to more mundane tasks. This has negatively affected people with dementia in terms of their illness and their self-worth.
For us with the care home, we are lucky we can continue to socialise amongst the residents and we have a full entertainment programme to encourage interaction and general merriment. We can maintain the residents’ routine as much as possible, obviously anything that was part of their routine outside of the home has been reduced or stopped however we are currently still getting out in the fresh air.
For those at home with dementia, the past 12 months must have been so difficult, unable to see friends and family. Not able to go out and do normal activities like shopping, meeting a friend for coffee and cake, or sports. It really has taken its toll, Over a quarter (27.5%) of people who died with COVID-19 from March to June had dementia.
But now we look to the future and how we will transition out of a lockdown situation. For the majority of us, we are excited to return to some sort of normality, but for those with dementia the outside world may not be the familiar surroundings they remember. For example, different shop layouts and processes may be disorientating. Signs and floor markings could be confusing and people in masks might be unsettling and/or difficult to understand. With numerous new rules to follow to keep everyone safe, this is something else to worry about, and also how others might react if they were to get it wrong.
In order to have an easier transition out of our current lockdown status, it is essential that those with dementia are supported by carers, services and the wider society. It has been reported that after the last lockdown those with dementia felt forgotten and abandoned and generally felt there was a lack of support when exiting the first lockdown.
So when we are out and about and continuing to follow the social distancing guidelines, remember that there are people in our community who might not be able to wear a mask or understand why they need to wear one. In a shop, there might be people who find it hard to follow the signage or understand they need to keep their distance. We need to remember to treat these people with patience, kindness and compassion.
We hope that all the dementia friendly practices that had been adopted by many shops before the pandemic such as clear signage, and staff who are trained to support customers with dementia can continue. We need to include and consult with people with dementia to develop communication and processes that promote their wellbeing and social inclusion and help them to live in world that might not be as familiar to them as it was before.