The Royal Bournemouth Hospital recently took delivery of an innovative new piece of equipment which uses meaningful activities to encourage movement, active participation and shared enjoyment in patients living with dementia. 

The omiVista Mobii interactive projection system is designed for people at all stages of dementia. It helps users achieve greater socialisation and communication, enjoyment, sustained moments of lucidity, physical movement and raised well-being levels through calming or stimulating activities. These can be projected onto floors, bedside tables and beds which make it a fully inclusive piece of equipment. 

A lot of patients who are living with dementia require on-going social care in the community which can take some time to organise. As they await discharge, the time spent in hospital can negatively impact on a patient and they can at times become withdrawn. This equipment enables staff to engage their patients in meaningful group activities as well as personalised one on one activities to build relationships. There is even a function to set up an individualised scrap book using a patient’s personal pictures. 

In dementia care, therapeutic engagement is so important and more often than not, it reduces the need for medications to manage the behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia. 

Katie Horswill, dementia and delirium team lead at the Royal Bournemouth Hospital said “We arranged for a demonstration of the omiVista on one of our older persons wards and instantly saw the huge positive impact it would have on our patients and staff. We are currently caring for a gentleman who is living with dementia who was quite withdrawn when he first came into hospital and we needed to find a way to engage with him. We thought we would try the omiVista and offered him the opportunity to look at the sensory equipment. 

We chose to use a picture of an unpainted, black and white fence projected onto a table. I placed one of the paint brushes in the patient's hand and asked him if he would kindly help me paint the fence. He instantly started painting and the projected image started to fill with colour. The patient engaged in this activity for quite some time; it was so lovely to see and quite emotional to watch.” 

To find out more about how we support the care of patients at University Hospitals Dorset visit www.uhdcharity.org