Mum’s brave battle
Hairmyres nurse became dementia champion after her mum’s death
Coping with a loved one diagnosed with dementia is something Hairmyres Hospital nurse Mairi-Louise Houldsworth can relate to.
For her own mother lived with the illness for five years before her death in 2015 at the age of 92.
Greenhills mother-of-13 Rosina Hunter, known locally as Rosaline, was diagnosed with mixed dementia in 2010.
But Mairi, an A&E charge nurse, remembers her mum’s memory deteriorating several years beforehand. Mairi, 52, from Calderwood, said: “I began to notice the short-term memory loss go about three or four years before she was diagnosed. Her longterm memory was still very sharp. That was always the way with mum – she could tell you about the war but not what she had for breakfast.
“It was the simple things you would take for granted. She lived in her home in Greenhills for 35 years but once the dementia took hold she couldn’t find her way to St Vincent’s Church.
“Alzheimer Scotland have this analogy to help you understand the way dementia affects a person.
“Imagine you are a bookcase and right at the top are your recent memories and you go further down towards your childhood memories. Dementia is rocking that bookcase and you start to lose those memories – with the short-term affected first and so on.
“My mum’s memories were disappearing one by one. She lost the ability to write and started to lose her vocabulary.”
Widowed at 57 with three children still at school, Rosaline was very much, Mairi explains, the strong, independent, matriarchal woman.
“My mum was a very intelligent, articulate woman who was used to doing a lot of things herself,” she said.
“And as well as looking after the family she continued with her many church activities.
“Losing her abilities was like losing a bit of the person over time.
“She had a great sense of humour and was a very strong individual so it was hard to watch that slipping away. There were flashes of her right to the end so I knew my mother was still in there.”
Towards the end of her life, Rosaline had a fall and broke her hip and was cared for at Hairmyres Hospital.
Mairi said: “I always thought we were a dementia-friendly hospital and didn’t realise just how terrifying an experience being treated in hospital was for someone with a cognitive impairment.”
Keen to make a difference for other patients coping with dementia, Mairi became a dementia champion.
The government-funded initiative is run jointly with the University of the West of Scotland and Alzheimer Scotland which sees volunteers encourage others to make a positive difference to people living with dementia in their community.
There are now 700 dementia champions in Scotland.
Since being introduced at Hairmyres, a day room space has been created which offers memory lane activities and a full-time coordinator is on hand to work with dementia patients.
Mairi said: “It’s about bringing knowledge back to the hospital, identifying changes that need to be made and working towards changing them.”
Chairperson Mairi and her team of dementia champions – lead occupational therapist Helen MacLachlin, physiotherapist Colette Ramsay, charge nurses Dominique Docharty, Suzanne Murray, Sharon Bruce and staff nurse Rhona Telfer – raised £2000 during Dementia Awareness Week and hosted various awareness activities.
These included the Alzheimer Scotland Dementia Bus, Canine Carers therapets and a performance by Alzheimer Scotland singing group Musical Memories.
And Mairi even had her head shaved for the cause.
She said: “We will use this money for a variety of things including a donation to Alzheimer Scotland and to Canine Concerns Scotland Trust.
“The remaining balance will be used within the hospital for things which will make things better in many ways for people living with dementia.
“We have plans to buy craft materials and entertainment equipment for this space and we would like to create a small sensory garden.”
According to Alzheimer Scotland, dementia is the biggest health and social care challenge faced by society today, with around 90,000 people living with dementia in Scotland.
The charity is committed to researching the causes of dementia, treatments and supports that allow people to live well with dementia as well as the prevention and cure.
Alzheimer Scotland believe no one should face dementia alone and continues to work with supporters and partners to increase awareness of the condition.
Henry Simmons, chief executive of Alzheimer Scotland, said: “Together with our partners we are transforming and improving the quality of care in our hospitals throughout Scotland. Champions all share with us a deep desire to ensure that the best possible quality of care and support is always delivered to everyone with a dementia diagnosis and their families.”
If you have any questions about dementia and of the services available in your area, call Alzheimer Scotland’s 24hour helpline on 0808 808 3000 or visit www.alzscot.org.
There were flashes of her right to the end so I knew my mother was still in there Daughter Mairi