Richard helps Roger rediscover his focus

A KEEN amateur photographer living with dementia is finding great joy in being supported to re-engage with his former hobby by staff at the home where he lives in Wellington, Somerset.

When 79-year-old Roger Jack moved into Camelot House and Lodge in October, his family was asked to share details of his interests with the team to help them create the right kind of person-centred care for him.

Daughter Becky told them her dad was always passionate about photography and had been taking photos for as long as she could remember, at least as far back as the early ‘80s, and had curated a collection of albums featuring his work, including lots of autumnal scenes and sunsets.

On hearing about their new resident’s interest, the home’s activities co-ordinator and fellow photography enthusiast Richard Dempslake decided to bring his own SLR Nikon digital camera into work to share with Roger who – at that point –no longer had a camera of his own.

Richard, who studied photography at the University of Plymouth before he started working in care, said: “As soon as I gave my camera to Roger you could see the passion flooding back.

“I didn’t have to aid him in holding it or in taking photos. It was heartbreaking to ask him for it back at the end of the session.

“I asked Becky if Roger had a camera he could use at Camelot and she said she’d get him a new one, so she did and now there’s no stopping him.

“Supporting residents to take part in activities they really enjoy is such an important part of our work here, so working with Roger to reignite his interest – with Becky’s invaluable support too – is a real pleasure.”

Richard added: “One of the characteristics of dementia is that a person’s ability to continue to participate in activities they’ve always enjoyed becomes too challenging for them unless they are actively supported in them. The underlying interest remains, but the ability to pursue it declines.

“So one of the major benefits in moving a loved one with dementia into a specialist residential home is that staff can support them to continue with the activities they enjoy which would otherwise probably fall by the wayside, which helps enable them to live their best lives despite their condition.”