Chesterfield Road North,Pleasley, Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, NG19 7RA

Haigh Healthcare News
By Jade Kennedy23/06/2020Magnolia House News

Doll therapy is a way of helping someone living with dementia feel happiness and research has shown that it can to help ease anxieties in day to day life.

The idea is that doll therapy will help those with dementia by providing enjoyment, giving feelings of love, triggering certain childcare memories, and it can even increase levels of activity as they move around while taking care of their dolls.

Doll therapy isn’t the right avenue for everyone and we recognise that there has been some stigma around the area but we honestly believe that the benefits massively out-weigh any negatives. You only have to witness the interaction to see how positive of an impact this has had within the home.

There’s a couple of websites with some useful information on the benefits of doll therapy and can help to address any concerns family members may have with the use of doll therapy.

https://www.dementiauk.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/The-use-of-dolls-new-style-Web.pdf

https://www.betterhealthcare.co.uk/doll-therapy-used-treat-dementia/

We have always had therapy dolls in the home, but over the last few months we have seen an increase in interaction with these. The level of communication we have seen is heart-warming particularly at a time when contact with family and friends has had to be reduced because of COVID-19.

Having already recognised some of the benefits from having the dolls in the home we decided that it may be beneficial for us to set up out own creche area, and thus, Magnolia’s minis begins.

This is still in the early stages as we begin to receive donations and add these bits to the creche area, but we are hoping to see a big impact on wellbeing of the residents. We are planning on transforming the sweet shop area -which will now be on a moveable cart- into the creche and with a little move around create an area with all the essentials needed for child care. We imagine this will be an ongoing project and there may be areas that will work, and areas that will not work, but that’s what Person centred care is about, trying and testing different things and honestly if this helps increase the wellbeing of just one residents we will consider it a success.

Some of the ladies have already been assisting ‘the boys’ to eat, play and get settled for the night along with providing love and care.

We have also witnessed this creating an area of common interest between some of the ladies and we will often see the ladies sat with a cuppa and chat about how the boys are getting on and what they’ve got planned for the day.

If you have any questions about Doll therapy please do get in touch with us and we will do all we can to answer these for you!



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