Trip to the Isle of Wight
Last month, our Client, Christopher went on a 5 day trip to the Isle of Wight, with the help of our two Care Professionals Simon and John.
Last month, one of our Clients, Christopher went on a 5 day trip to the Isle of Wight, with the help of our two Care Professionals Simon and John. Organising the trip took a long time and we finally made his wish come true!
The three of them spent 5 nights in the Isle of Wight and spent the days visiting places, meeting new people and also catching up with a friend the Client hasn’t seen in over 40 years!
Christopher has been our Client for over three years and during this time has developed a strong bond with his care team. Living with dementia, a trip of this nature would be difficult for Christopher to make and that’s where his Care Professionals stepped in, volunteering to accompany him on the five day trip. The trio travelled by coach and ferry.
With dementia, short term memories can vanish but long term memories are often easier for the person to access. That’s exactly what happened on this trip with memories evoked from years gone by and Christopher reciting memories of his family and friends.
The highlight of the trip was the reunion between Christopher and his old friend Liz, who he hadn’t seen for over 40 years. A seven hour catch up led to much reminiscing of past events, celebrations and time spent together. Commenting on the visit Care Professional Simon said, “It was an absolute privilege top accompany Christopher on this trip and be able to grant him this wish. What’s really interesting is that the trip has served to rekindle his memories an help with day to day tasks such as telling the time, walking more and he’s playing more snooker which is a game we taught him. Taking Christopher to his old home town has done wonders for his overall wellbeing and it was a delight to see him taking control of our itinerary whilst we were on the island and helping to plan what we got up to whilst we were there. The trip was pretty full on for John and I but having this opportunity to take a client away and see the impact on their health has been a real perk of the job.”
