Brampton Manor Hosts Dementia Experience Bus
Brampton Manor by Boutique Care Homes, situated in Newmarket, Suffolk, welcomed the Dementia Experience Bus to its grounds on 21 September, giving around 30 visitors the chance to step inside what living with dementia can actually feel like.
The event was delivered in partnership with Training 2 Care, the specialist provider behind the Virtual Dementia Tour: the only medically and scientifically proven method of giving a realistic simulation of what living with dementia might be like. Aboard the bus, visitors were given the chance to walk in the shoes of someone living with dementia, experiencing for themselves something of what that reality can feel like.
Attendees included healthcare professionals, prospective families exploring care options, families of current Brampton Manor residents, and members of the home’s own team. Also taking part were representatives from Suffolk Adult Social Care, West Suffolk Local Authority, Healthwatch, and the organisers of a local dementia cafe, reflecting the breadth of people across Newmarket’s care community with a stake in understanding dementia better.
Michael Peachey of Training 2 Care believes that understanding has to be felt before it can shape how someone gives care. “It is impossible to provide care or support to a person living with dementia to the absolute best of your abilities without being able to truly empathise with how that person may be experiencing the world,” he said. That is what the Virtual Dementia Tour is built to do: as he put it, it is “the only medically and scientifically proven method of giving a person a realistic simulation of what dementia might be like,” giving participants, in his words, “the unique opportunity to walk in the shoes of someone living with dementia.”
That shift, from knowing about dementia to understanding it from the inside, was felt across every group who took part. Professionals who work with dementia daily, families weighing up care decisions for a loved one, and Brampton Manor’s own team all left the bus with the same understanding: that small changes, made with genuine empathy, can transform how someone living with dementia experiences their day. Peachey is clear that this is the real value of the tour: “it goes far beyond simply providing an incredible level of knowledge,” he said. “The tour empowers people to put this newfound understanding to use through making some incredibly simple changes which don’t cost a fortune, don’t take a lot of time, and which can lead to transformational changes in the wellbeing of people living with dementia.”
Training 2 Care sees the partnership as one it hopes to build on. “At Training 2 Care, we are honoured to be able to provide access to this life changing experience for Boutique Care Homes, and look forward to hearing how impactful the experience is for those that take part,” Peachey said.
Akhi Goswami, Home Manager at Brampton Manor, said the day reinforced something the team already tries to live by: “Our team works hard every day to see the world through our residents’ eyes, but this gave us something we don’t often get: a few minutes actually inside that experience. Sharing it with families, professionals and our neighbours from across Newmarket made it even more valuable. It’s exactly the kind of understanding we want running through everything we do here.”
Events like this extend well beyond a single afternoon. By bringing prospective families, local authority representatives, healthcare professionals and its own team into the same room, and the same bus, Brampton Manor is building a wider circle of people equipped to support residents with dementia thoughtfully and well, long after the Dementia Experience Bus has moved on to its next stop.
It is this kind of detail, the willingness to go beyond a policy document or a training slide and let people feel what dementia care decisions are really about, that families notice when they are choosing a home for someone they love. At Brampton Manor, that is simply how the job gets done.
