Therapeutic garden for patients with dementia unveiled at the Royal Devon and Exeter hospital

A NEW therapeutic garden for patients with dementia has been officially unveiled at the Royal Devon and Exeter hospital in Wonford. The innovative Devon Garden has been specifically designed to improve the quality of care offered to those with a cognitive impairment such as dementia. Designed by local gardener and TV presenter, Toby Buckland, the garden provides a space where patients can relax and enjoy the outdoors whilst enabling clinical staff to undertake mobility and cognitive assessments.

Opening of 'Devon Garden' I designed for dementia sufferers carers & families at RD&E hospital Exeter. Proud pic.twitter.com/QL1wYbePq7

— Toby Buckland (@TobyBuckland) September 5, 2014

It contains many innovative features to prompt discussion and recollection, including the stories' telephone box, which is a cabinet of scent with a sound system playing music evocative of patients' young adult years. Patients with dementia can often recall the past far better than the present, and so the memory prompts in the garden will enable staff to engage with patients in a different and better way. The garden is one of 116 projects to have been awarded £141,000 funding from the Department of Health through the Dementia Challenge which aims to improv the environment of care for people with dementia. It has also been selected by the Department of Health as one of just 15 NHS schemes to be used as a case study to inform future policy and strategy. The project has received a further £30,000 of support from the RD&E's General Charitable Funds. More than 40,000 people have been diagnosed with dementia in the South West. Given the region's significant aging population, dementia care and finding new ways of improving patient experience is something that is at the top of the RD&E's agenda. The Devon Garden was opened at an event attended by members of RD&E staff, the project design team, researchers from the University of Exeter, and representatives from local charities and Devon County Council. After a listening to a few speeches, guests were able to take a look around the garden and explore its innovative features whilst enjoying an afternoon tea. James Brent, chairman of the RD&E NHS Foundation Trust, said: "It is vitally important to us that we explore new and innovative ways of caring for people with dementia. "The Devon Garden will be just one of the tools helping us to meet the challenge currently faced by the NHS and will ensure that we are providing the highest quality care for patients and their relatives."