Providing support for patients suffering dementia or delirium while participating in in some nationally significant research is on offer to locals.
Australian National University seeking Bega Valley residents with recruitment underway for the next generation of Golden Angels volunteers at Bega’s South East Regional Hospital.
Two decades on and the work of local Clinical Nurse Consultant Catherine Bateman who looked after patients with dementia and delirium still lives on through the project.
The Golden Angels Project was the result of her observations of what made a real difference to the outcomes of people with these conditions.
The university also wants to evaluate the transfer of the traditional in-person training to an online version to make it accessible to a wider section of the Far South Coast community.
ANU lead researcher Dr Sarah MacPherson said the work involved is simple but very important.
“It’s usually the simple things that make make a difference, which might be something like a patient needs help preparing their lunch, cutting up their food, encouraging them to have a drink or just someone sitting with them, having a chat, providing reassurance.
“Those are the things that can really make a difference to the experience that someone is having during as hospital admission.
“The challenge is that hospital staff obviously are incredibly busy and they don’t always have the time to provide that sort of extra support so by training volunteers we’re hoping to bridge that gap between what health services can provide and what these patients who are at particular risk need.
There is no particular number of Golden Angels volunteers being sought as recruitment is ongoing but an immediate injection is being sought to help with the training evaluation.
