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Calls for dignity for dementia patients

Heather Lawrence was shocked at the state she found her 90-year-old mother, Violet, in when she visited her in hospital.

“The bed was soaked in urine. The continence pad between her legs was also soaked in urine, the door wide open, no underwear on. It was a mixed ward as well,” Heather says.

“I mean there were other people in there that could have been walking up and down seeing her, with the door wide open as well. My mum, she was a very proud woman, she wouldn’t have been wanted to be seen like that at all.”

Violet, who had dementia, was taken Tameside Hospital’s Stamford Unit in Greater Manchester , in May 2021, after a fall. It was there her health deteriorated as she developed an inflamed groin with a nasty rash stretching to her stomach – due to prolonged exposure to urine. She died a few weeks later.

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The Avenue Learning Centre Learning resources from Neil Thompson and colleagues

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