When Samuel Worsdale noticed his memory failing, his local Mental Health and Vascular Wellbeing Service provided him with support. Thanks to this, he has been able to adapt to the changes in his life, maintain his independence and live in his own home.
Samuel Worsdale, 72, noticed that his memory had begun to fail in the two years since his wife passed away. He was referred to the Mental Health and Vascular Wellbeing Service in North Staffordshire, who provide a range of personal support tools to help improve quality of life and independence.
“He was forgetting things on shopping lists, getting a bit mixed up,” Samuel’s daughter Emma says. “Things that he enjoys doing he was finding more tricky, and were therefore making his life more difficult.”
Samuel visited his GP who referred him to the Memory Clinic at the local hospital in Newcastle-under-Lyme, and to the Wellbeing Service. The Wellbeing Service in North Staffordshire was a new initiative at the time.
“They are trying to not just deal with the physical problems, but with the emotional side of mental health problems,” says Emma. “The aim of the project is to get people to live as ‘normal’ a life as possible by putting in little things that help build up self-confidence and self esteem.”
A cognitive behaviour therapist works closely with people like Samuel to assess their needs and recommend therapies to help build self-esteem. The therapist visits Samuel every month and works with him to create strategies to help him live independently.
“She’s introduced Dad to things like breathing exercises. So if he feels the stress building up he does his exercises and calms the situation,” says Emma.
Samuel used to have panic attacks when he went to the supermarket. But the support from the Wellbeing Service and his own determination changed this.
“I was going in there and I felt I was being pressed down. I just had to get out of the place,” Samuel says. “I didn’t leave it. I thought, ‘I’m going to go back again’, and now I don’t have a problem.”
The Wellbeing Service has also helped introduce Samuel to other types of support. He will soon be starting sessions with an occupational therapist to help him get better at tasks that he enjoys and are important to him, such as cooking and reading.
“Because of the things in place, Dad is able to cope,” Emma says.” They are things that perhaps we wouldn’t have thought of ourselves which she is able to suggest, to try and make life easier. They realise that taking somebody out of their own home can often be detrimental to how they’re surviving, and lead to a deterioration quite quickly.”
He has been put in touch with an organisation called Saltbox that operates a telephone support service for people who are on their own. A support group for people in a similar situation to Samuel to share feelings and tap into a support network has also been recommended to him.
Initially Samuel and Emma found there was little communication between the different health and care services that Samuel was accessing. But they both agree that now they are working together much more closely.
“It’s a more rounded care, because you’ve got people dealing with every aspect of the illness. Emotional, practical and the actual medical side of things, you get a better overview of care in the end,” Emma says.
Emma recalls the experience of her grandmother, and is grateful for how much things have changed in a generation.
“My Nan had Alzheimer’s and thinking back to the care she had it was quite different. It seemed to take a long time to access things. The same opportunities weren’t there for her as there are now for my Dad,” says Emma.
Samuel hopes to keep working with the Wellbeing Service and is looking forward to the new sessions with the occupational therapist. He is confident that the Wellbeing Service has helped him think more positively.
“Really, they’re like a friend to you. She (Samuel’s therapist) is a very good listener, and everything she’s presented to me I felt yes, I can go along with that, yes that’s useful. And that builds you up a bit.”
Emma is keen to see these kinds of prevention services in place nationwide.
“We are very aware,” says Emma, “that perhaps where I live, only five miles down the road, I wouldn’t get the same. It is something that should be available to everybody.”