The workers who age 60 years in five minutes...in ‘time warp suit’

CARE home staff are being asked to wear ‘age simulation suits’ to help them better understand the problems faced by elderly residents.

Doctors, nurses and even receptionists at Scotland’s Erskine centres put on the kit during mandatory training sessions to experience first-hand the difficulties of old age.

The initiative is the first of its kind in Scottish care homes.

Participants wear goggles that impair their vision and insert ear plugs to restrict their ability to hear.

Weights are strapped to wrists and ankles to mimic the effects of weakened muscles, while braces that affect the joints mirror the pain of arthritis.

Staff also wear gloves that imitate the loss of sensation in the fingers that comes with ageing.

The suits take only five minutes to put on, then employees are asked to perform basic tasks such as filling a cup with water, putting on a shirt and opening a container of food.

Erskine has four of the age simulators, which cost £1,200 each and weigh about 12 pounds.

About 70 per cent of Erskine residents suffer from dementia.

Dementia nurse consultant Janice McAlister, 55, who runs the training, said she is ‘trying to put staff into the residents’ shoes’. She hopes that once workers understand what elderly patients go through, they will be able to provide more tailored care and will refrain from immediately giving out drugs to treat the residents.

Erskine director of care Derek Barron, 57, agreed fully, saying: ‘If you recognise the distress, you can intervene earlier before we get to medication.’

Ms McAlister said it was important for all employees – even receptionists – to undergo the training because it helps them relate to elderly patients. She added: ‘Any care home employee might be the first point of call when a patient is in distress and asks for help.’

During training sessions, staff wear the suits for ten to 15 minutes and then watch videos of themselves trying to function.

This part is critical because many employees see themselves behaving in ways that patients do. Mr Barron said: ‘The debrief’s really important.’

He added that some staff react to the videos by saying: ‘I’ve seen residents do that.’

Ms McAlister says the exercise emphasises to employees that simple tasks can easily take the wind out of elderly patients.

She said: ‘It’s disorienting. You lose control.’

Ms McAlister revealed that the time spent wearing a simulation suit ‘increases anxiety in staff’, adding: ‘Some become quite distressed.’

She added that employees were often shocked afterwards – and that one employee had even cried following the session.

Mr Barron said that when he watched the footage of his own training session, he noticed that he ‘furniture hopped’ while wearing the simulation suit.

He ‘went from piece of furniture to piece of furniture’, holding on for balance, and said he had seen residents doing the same thing but now understood why they had to do so.

Ms McAlister said: ‘The behaviours you see in the videos you’ll probably see in every single house within the care home.’

‘It’s disorienting. You lose control’