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QI 1274 Improving Sensory Awareness in Dementia Care Homes
Wray, Nicky Mackreth, Janet Supported by the Quality Improvement Team
Wray, Nicky
Mackreth, Janet
Supported by the Quality Improvement Team
Abstract
Project Aim: To improve sensory awareness of staff in Dementia care homes, to address underlying sensory needs in patients referred to Community OT for support with distress.
Over the years, Community Mental Health Occupational Therapists have developed ways of working with care homes that do not solely involve medication. Grant money was identified that could be used for improving the lives of people with dementia. The initial idea was to develop sensory soothing boxes that care homes could use with patients to see if this improves their distress. This project set out to increase the knowledge and use of evidence based sensory approaches to understand distress in people with dementia, particularly where distress leads to behaviours that are challenging to approach or manage in care home settings. The overarching aim was to embed person centred sensory preferences into everyday care and, in doing so, reduce the need for and reliance on medication as the primary response to distressed behaviour.
Tools Used:
Driver diagram - https://aqua.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/qsir-driver-diagrams.pdf;
Pareto charts - https://aqua.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/qsir-pareto.pdf;
PDSA cycles - https://aqua.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/qsir-pdsa-cycles-model-for-improvement.pdf.
Project Impact: Positive outcomes for individuals where sensory approaches were implemented consistently - clearer understanding of triggers, improved engagement and reduced distress. Increased awareness among some care home staff of non‑ pharmacological approaches, even if sustained uptake was limited. Stronger MDT collaboration, becoming more integrated into wider dementia care pathways instead of operating as a standalone intervention. OTs were able to support patients into more meaningful occupations through exploring their sensory preferences and occupational history. Positive feedback from care home staff and families, with sensory boxes felt to be useful and inspiring families to gather their own items. The project demonstrated clear benefits at an individual level, showing that sensory based, person centred approaches can reduce distress and potentially reduce reliance on medication.
MIDER Authors
Affiliations
Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership NHS Trust
Citations
Altmetric:
Date
2026-03
Type
Internal Poster
Subject
Collections
Citation
Wray, Nicky; Mackreth, Janet. QI 1274 Improving Sensory Awareness in Dementia Care Homes. Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership NHS Trust, 2026.