"I felt very useless. Unable to understand what to do. I felt physically uncomfortable"

On the 26th February 2020, the Virtual Dementia Tour (VDT) had the pleasure of hosting; Senior Social Workers, Regional Care Coordinators, Nurses, Nurse Emergency Department Geriatric Nurses, Nurse Navigator for the vulnerable and elderly, Social Workers, RAS Assessors, Customer Liaison Officers and Dementia Alliance/Industry Liaison Clinician.

Dementia is not a journey that should be travelled alone, dementia is a journey that requires a team approach to meet the holistic care needs of our #dementiaheroes. We were thrilled to have a multidisciplinary group of health professionals challenge their understanding and knowledge on dementia and immerse themselves in an experience that would last with them a life time.

The VDT is not just an evidenced based "experience", the VDT allows you the privilege to walk in the shoes of a person experiencing cognitive decline to force staff to be aware of their attitudes and behaviours when providing direct care and reflect on how they as an individual can change their approach when engaging, supporting and caring for people diagnosed with dementia.

The Virtual Dementia Tour takes something intangible like empathy and makes it tangible by allowing staff members to see themselves as impaired and behaving in ways that simulate behaviours that may be displayed by a person diagnosed with dementia. People who step outside of their comfort zone and immerse themselves will also relate what they will do differently when exposed to the same situation again. This is what person-centred/ relational models of care are all about: the ability to look at the individual, identify with them and respond positively ensuring all interactions are done so with dignity and respect.

The feedback from yesterday's sessions encouraged me to share this with every single person who engages this article to raise further awareness about the social, clinical and economic impacts of dementia and how we as a society need to step up and realise that this is the journey that dementia takes you on and it's time for us to get on their train and not try and get people on our train.

• "Overloading of all senses, no understanding of purpose or expectations very enlightening"
• "The sense of having no purpose. Not knowing what I needed to do. The noise (constant) over time would definitely affect me"    
• "Feeling of frustration at not being able to complete even the most simplest of tasks. Heightened sensory emotions on hearing the sudden siren/phone"
• "The continual noise and my feet hurt. Can still feel it now. Could not understand or hear the tasks"
• "The experience made me feel confused and disorientated to where I was. I wasn't able to focus or understand what to do. I didn't know if I was capable of speaking. I felt alone"
• "The different visual/audio/tactile = sensory restrictions/challenges. Not understanding loud noise through headphones. Soles in shoes - can create agitation"
• "It was a challenge to do very simple tasks like folding clothes. It was the noises in my head and sudden bangs that left me feeling exhausted"
• "Being in a place, not knowing what to do. Too noisy sound and I couldn't hear the person who gave the instructions. This is a terrible experience"
• "Get the voices out of my head. Get me out of here"

We need to invest in our people, communities and workforce that are involved in the direct care and change the perceptions on dementia so the people we care for who may or may not be able to tell us they are not okay feel respected and treated with dignity on the dementia journey.

Every human life is so precious and deserves to feel valued regardless of age or cognitive ability and it is everyone's responsibility to adopt a more kind and compassioniate approach now and into the future.