AWARD-WINNING technology is being used to support dementia patients at Salisbury District Hospital.

The hospital has launched Friends Memory Lane Café, a reminiscence room for elderly patients, which includes award-winning technology, Tovertafel, which is also known as "magic tables".

The room, located on Spire Ward, has been renamed and re-designed to provide a place of calm away from a clinical environment.

It has been made possible thanks to a donation from the League of Friends.

Julia Burton, dementia support education co-ordinator, said: “With an ageing population, we are always looking for innovative ways to stimulate our patients and reduce social isolation.

"We are so grateful to the League of Friends for funding the adaptions to the reminiscence room and the table, which is making a huge difference to our patients well-being. It is so heart-warming to see the reactions from our patients, who can go from being quite uncommunicative and agitated, to becoming calmer, more relaxed, immersed and smiling."

The magic table projects interactive light displays, designed to motivate the mind and inspire elderly frail and stroke patients, including those with dementia, to be more active.

The colourful images respond instantly to participants’ reactions creating opportunities for individual or group play and encouraging patients to interact with one another.

This, the hospital says, is a simple and effective way of bringing dementia patients together with others, including their families and carers.

David Stratton, the chairman of the League of Friends said: “It’s great to see the money raised by the charity being used to support an important initiative which is having such a positive impact on patients. The League of Friends fund around a dozen projects every year that make a difference to patients and visitors to the hospital. This is only possible thanks to the generous donations to our charity from the community.”

To find out more about the League of Friends go to leagueoffriends.salisbury.nhs.uk