"There needs to be more dementia awareness"

My aunt (in her 90s) was admitted to Hairmyres hospital recently from her care home suffering sepsis. Went through A&E with no problems and then was admitted to Ward 13.

She suffers from mixed dementia. On arrival at the ward she was only there 10 mins before I got there for visiting. A clinical support worker was doing her blood pressure and my aunt was screaming and shouting due to the stress of everything that was happening. It became apparent to me that the clinical support worker didn’t know how to address the situation. They then got the nurse in charge and they managed to get her blood pressure done.

Clinical support worker then moved on to next patient who started to speak about my aunt shouting and bawling (it’s not ideal I know, but she hasn’t left her care home in 2 years and recognises no one or any voices or any of her surroundings so is extremely anxious). The clinical support worker was engaging in conversation with the patient about my aunt telling her that if she had just stayed still instead of moving and shouting out  it would have been done, which I thought was totally out of order. I felt they should have shut the conversation down as soon as it started.

They then moved in to the next 2 ladies and they then started talking about her as well and the support worker then engaged with them about her, all while I was sitting there.

Phoned the ward in the morning to find out how my aunt was and spoke to the nurse in charge and told them about it. They said they thought I had taken it the wrong way. I feel it should never have been said for me to take it the wrong way. There needs to be more dementia awareness on the ward and everyone treated with compassion.