ELDERLY patients at St Luke’s Hospital in Bradford are now able to take a trip down memory lane thanks to a new installation.
The long corridor linking elderly care wards F5 and F6 has been transformed into a brightly-coloured and inspirational ‘Reflection Walk’ to inspire patients with dementia and memory impairment to recall their histories and remember special times in their lives.
The space has come alive with detailed scenes to spark conversations between patients and their families, carers and visitors as well as with staff who look after them during their stay in hospital.
Samantha Hunter is the estates and facilities project lead for Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which oversees St Luke’s Hospital, and is responsible for bringing the scheme to fruition.
She said: “In February 2023 I had a vision of creating a dementia-friendly corridor after being inspired by a wonderful project at Blackpool Teaching Hospitals.
“As we had just completed some dementia-friendly enhancements to our elderly care wards at St Luke’s including individual images over the beds, I realised the potential to explore the corridor leading to these wards.
“Not only did I want this space to be visually attractive to patients, staff and visitors but the idea was to create a distraction area away from the ward for anyone who might be distressed or in need of ‘time out’.”
Both sides of the corridor have been transformed and the result is a circular ‘Reflection Walk’ around 20 metres long. The work has been carried out by Lucentia designs, a creative design company specialising in holistic sustainable projects for health and well-being.
Lucentia’s Creative Director, Stella Corrall worked closely with patients to find out what was important to them, and the images are now based on their ideas.
The scenes depict memories inspired by ‘a day by the sea’ and ‘a day at the park.’ The walk also features flip-down, old-fashioned cinema seats where patients and their carers or families can sit and chat.
Sam added: “I want this to be a place of happy times and memories, an area for discussions and conversations and even to help with mobility and encouraging patients to get up and move away from their bed areas.”
The ‘Reflection Walk’ was officially opened by Tommy Whitelaw, UK project engagement lead with the Health and Social Care Alliance’s Dementia Carer Voices Project.
For five years he was a full-time carer for his late mother, Joan, who had vascular dementia.
In 2011, Tommy undertook a walk around Scotland’s towns and cities to collect hundreds of life story letters detailing the experiences of individuals caring for a loved one living with dementia.
Since then, he has engaged with thousands of carers through his ‘Tommy on Tour’ blog and through talks to health and social care professionals and carer organisations to raise awareness of the impact of dementia on families.
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