"I think staff need extra training for dementia patients"

My mum was admitted to MAU at RAH from her care home last year due to taking a collapse/seizure.  My mum had Alzheimer's.  The next day I was told that my mum would be discharged back to her care home as her obs were ok.  Neither myself nor the home heard anything from ward to confirm discharge would be going ahead.  Neither of us could get through to the ward to find out what was happening despite several attempts.

 I left work and headed up to the ward to discover that my mum had taken another episode during the night and had collapsed and was now on monitors and an oxygen supply.  No one from the ward had attempted to contact me to tell me that my mum had taken a turn for the worst.  When I eventually managed to speak to the nurse looking after my mum she told me that she was too busy to contact me.  I appreciate that staff are busy but given the fact that my mum was now very ill I feel I should have been informed.   

My mum pulled through and was transferred to the Elderly Medicine ward where one of the nurses was brilliant with her and seemed to understand what was needed to deal with dementia patients.  But my mum was put in a single room with no company or tv/radio to occupy her which did not help with her mental health and she became very depressed over the week.  She also had very little interaction with people especially once she became better.  I was up at the hospital as much as I could be to ensure that she was eating and doing as the staff were asking her to do.  She was discharged a couple of days later back to her care home  but died unexpectedly later that week.   

In relation to dementia patients I think staff need extra training to deal with them.  Dementia sufferers often do not understand what is going on and are very scared  as they are in an environment that they do not know with strange people and noises.  I think it would be a good idea if when they are trying to get blood samples or give an injection to use magic cream that is used with children to numb the area as advanced stage dementia patients are often like toddlers when it comes to needles.