HOSPITAL can be a particularly frightening place for people with dementia and those with learning disabilities.

Being in a strange building with people they don’t know caring for them must often be terrifying. Fortunately, a new system which allows their carers to be with them on the wards is helping to remove fears and aid their care.

And the same system is even ensuring a family carer is with more people as they approach the end of their life in hospital.

John’s Campaign was founded after the death of Dr John Gerrard in November, 2014. He had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in his mid-70s but was managing to live a good, if limited, life at home, caring for his wife and supported by his family.

He was admitted to hospital in February, 2014, aged 86, to receive treatment for infected leg ulcers. During his five-week stay, visits from his family were severely restricted due to an infection outbreak and his decline was catastrophic.

As his daughter Nicci Gerrard said: “My father went into hospital articulate and able. He emerged a broken man.”

An article in the Observer newspaper about him sparked an outpouring of public sympathy and many accounts of similar situations. John’s Campaign resulted, taking its inspiration from the 1960s campaign which secured the acceptance of parents’ rights to remain with their children in hospital and children’s rights to the uninterrupted support of their parents.

The Royal Bolton Hospital is the latest hospital around the country to adopt John’s Campaign and started implementing changes in April.

What it means on the ground, explained dementia nurse specialist Chris Davidson, is that a carer of someone with dementia can have open visiting if that person has to stay in hospital for whatever reason.

“This helps to maintain the routine of home, which is very important to someone with dementia, and allows the carer to help with the things they would at home like eating and helping with dressing,” he said.

The carer gets a special lanyard which states “I am a Carer” and an information pack. “They have an official status and are recognised in the hospital as a carer,” added Chris.

The system means that the carer is still able to ensure the person they are caring for is being reassured by their presence, that they don’t feel abandoned. The carer is also not tied to a timetable of visiting that restricts their often much-needed presence.

“The carers can also talk to people and get some support and there is not the same disruption to the caring routine for the person who has dementia,” said Chris.

The system has been particularly welcomed locally by Bolton Dementia Support. The Alzheimer’s Society has supplied the lanyards and the Women’s Institute, which has been running a similar campaign, has supplied “Carers Welcome Here” posters for the hospital.

“There is no time limit for this on the wards and it’s a system that is working very well,” said Chris. “It definitely helps the patients involved, the ward and the carers themselves.”

John’s Campaign organisers feel that involving a family carer from the moment of admission to hospital until the moment of discharge has been proved to give better quality of care and improved outcomes.

“This is common sense,” they say. “Hospital staff are professionals withy a wide, generalised knowledge. The family carer is the expert in that single individual. If they are accepted as part of the care team they can immediately provide insight, facilitate communication (and informed consent) and ensure continuity.”

Caption: Dementia nurse specialist Chris Davidson with some of the John’s Campaign items