Frinton care workers walk in the shoes of clients with dementia

Home Instead, based in Frinton, teamed up with Colchester’s Training2Care to offer employees a unique training day using its Virtual Dementia Tour.

The sessions used the latest virtual reality technology to give those taking part a chance to see what life is like for people with dementia.

About 30 per cent of Home Instead’s clients are living with dementia and, therefore, it is essential they receive the best possible care.

Jean Allen, chief executive of Home Instead, said: “Dementia is more than just a loss of memory, it alters a person’s every day life.

“If you can understand how, then you are able to look at the changes you can make to best support that person and help improve their lives.

“This unique training experience is a real eye opener. I am so glad I am not living with dementia because it is very distressing to deal with these symptoms.”

The Virtual Dementia Tour is said to be the only scientifically and medically proven method of giving a person with a healthy brain an experience of what dementia is like.

During the training session Clacton MP Giles Watling was also led into the booth so he could experience for himself the realities of living with dementia.

He said: “Sadly, I know how damaging it can be, not only to the individual living with dementia, but to those around offering help and support.

“It is vital that we, as a community, strive to bring some light into the lives of those affected by engendering a greater understanding of this debilitating condition.

“The tour is disorientating and sensory depriving. If this is an accurate definition of dementia, it is distressing.”

Alongside the specialist dementia training Home Instead offers its staff, the company also work in partnership with Frinton Free Church to deliver dementia cafés.

The events, which take place on the second and fourth Tuesday of each month, aim to offer support, fun and friendship to those living with dementia and their loved ones.