12.13. “Pupaza din tei”. Amintiri din copilarie capitolul 4 povestire pe momentele subiectului.Image copyright Handout
The UK's first dedicated dementia unit in a hospice has been officially opened.
It will provide much-needed palliative care for people with dementia who are also dying.
More than half of the 4.5 million people living with dementia in the UK are cared for at home and their needs will not be addressed by the new unit.
But campaigners said the facility would make a vital difference for people who can no longer cope at home.
The new hospice care service is a partnership between Alzheimer's Society and the Alzheimer's Research UK charity.
The services will be made available in the new hospices that will replace existing hospices across the UK in 2017.
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Dame Judith Hackitt wants hospices to reflect the needs of people with dementia
Dame Judith Hackitt, the former chief executive of the NHS and Social Care Services Commission, has backed the plans.
She said: "We need to learn from what works best for patients and staff and to look at ways to adapt hospice care to better address the unique needs of people with dementia."
The new hospice at Wandsworth, London, will have beds for 10 people with dementia and it will be open from 9am to 11pm, seven days a week.
A team of five staff will care for those with dementia and they will provide advice and support to family carers and doctors.
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Esther Morley, who has dementia, said she would have preferred to be cared for at home but she said she was happy that she would get "the best possible care" at the new hospice.
She said: "It means a lot to me to have a hospice to help me if I need it.
"I don't want to be in hospital and it's so nice to go there and know it's going to be a nice place."
Prof Wendy Burn, president of the Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine, said the care of people with dementia in a hospice setting was very different from that in hospital.
She said the new hospice would fill a crucial gap in care and that the unit would be "much needed and greatly valued by people with be359ba680
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