What matters to me? How development of a personal sensory biography has helped meet needs.
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Barbirolli Room |
Susannah Thwaites
Advanced Clinical Practitioner Occupational Therapist
Tees, Esk & Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust
Emma Biglands
Specialist Occupational Therapist
Tees, Esk & Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust
Summary
This interactive workshop will describe the development of a Personal and Sensory Biography and how it has enabled needs to be met with individualised interventions.
It was co-created as part of a Namaste Care project in organic inpatient wards in 2020-2021. It was found that using the biography helped care partners to be more curious about the person, finding out about their uniqueness, giving clues and ‘golden nuggets’ and insights about them, to make meaningful connections with positive outcomes such as reduced distress, acceptance of physical interventions and improved communication.
The use of sensory-based approaches and interventions in dementia care is well documented and evidenced, indicating positive outcomes such as improved cognitive function and enhanced quality of life. The application of this in practice is less well evidenced, in ensuring interventions are meaningful to the individual; with less focus on how this information is gathered and the accuracy of this.