A BODY suit which simulates what it is like to be old is being used as a training tool in a group of Scottish care homes for the first time to give staff an insight into the everyday difficulties faced by their elderly residents.
Veterans charity, Erskine, will use the devices to train everyone from nurses to receptionists and managers across its four care homes in Bishopton, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Erskine Park.
The suits include large Velcro strappings which are fastened tightly around the user's arms and legs to mimic the stiffness and loss of mobility many elderly people suffer in their knee and elbow joints. Weights are attached to the user's wrists and ankles to imitate the decline in muscles strength which occurs with ageing, making walking and lifting tiring, while a back brace creates a stooped posture.
Earplugs are used to simulate mild hearing loss, with gloves and finger restrictors reducing the trainee's sense of touch and ability to grasp objects, making them clumsy. Finally yellow-tinted goggles cover the user's face to feign common eyesight problems among the elderly such as blocking out peripheral vision and the visual clouding of cataracts.
Erskine's dementia nurse consultant, Janice McAlister, said she believed the experience was "70 to 80 per cent accurate" to the impairment experienced by many elderly people.
She said: "I think it allows staff of all grades, all disciplines, it allows them to transport themselves into the residents' situation. It gives a better understanding of the difficulties our residents have on a day to day basis, even with carrying out the simplest of tasks. Pouring out a drink, eating a yoghurt, putting on t-shirt or just getting yourself from one room to another can be extremely difficult."
There are currently 333 resident accommodated across Erskine's four homes, and at least half have a form of dementia or some cognitive impairment. Money donated by the Kilpatrick Fraser Charitable Trust funded the purchase of three ageing-simulator suits, at a cost of £1,200 each. Although the outfits have been used on university nursing courses as a training aid, this is the first time they have been deployed in a care setting.
In addition to the body suits, the charity has also converted a cottage at its Bishopton site into a training suite where staff kitted out in the ageing paraphernalia will be asked to enter a room set up to resemble a typical sitting room and perform a simple tasks such as finding and folding towels, pouring a drink or putting on a top. During the tasks they will have to tune out distractions such as a blaring radio, ringing telephone or ambulance sirens.
Throughout the test the trainees are filmed by overhead cameras and afterwards will be asked to watch back their behaviour in a separate screening room in the cottage.
Mrs McAlister said: "The most powerful part of the simulation is watching yourself on the playback, because you can then identify in some of the behaviours that you've carried out that felt perfectly normal to you some of the same things you see residents performing on a daily basis."
Derek Barron, director of care at Erskine said the experience enhanced the empathy carers could feel for the homes' residents and in turn help them to understand and reduce stress behaviours.
He said: "I didn't realise until I watched the footage back that I was 'furniture hopping' - my hands were going out zombie-like to get to the next bit of furniture to steady myself because you can't see things on either side. That's something I've seen so often.
"The more you can understand, the more you can empathise with what someone is experiencing and some of their frustrations. Then you can understand better how to approach somebody.
"Round about 50 per cent of our residents, sometimes slightly more, have a dementia or a cognitive impairment, so it's really important for us to understand how to care for them.
"That is going to impact not just on that individual resident, but on the other residents through a reduction in stress behaviour. And also on the relatives who see their mum or dad or loved one more settled."
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