This article first appeared in the The Health Advocate - AHHA, August Edition.
Photo credit: Southern NSW Local Health District

When Alison* speaks about her mother’s first hospital admission, the distress in her words is clear.

“In the end, I asked if I could bring her home,” she recalls. “She wasn’t eating, she was getting confused. The staff just don’t have time to sit and feed elderly, confused people.”

Alison’s mother lives with dementia. Her hospital stay triggered delirium, an all too common and distressing experience for older adults with cognitive impairment.

Clinical Nurse Consultant, Cath Bateman, saw this scenario play out time and time again: older patients with dementia becoming anxious, agitated, and unwell in unfamiliar hospital environments. She knew something had to change.

In 2009, together with Barbara Williams from Alzheimer’s NSW and Associate Professor Katrina Anderson from The Australian National University, Ms Bateman and team launched a groundbreaking pilot program. The idea? Train volunteers to provide emotional and practical support for patients with dementia in hospital.

The training, grounded in person-centred care principles, equipped volunteers to understand the emotional and psychological needs of people living with dementia. They learned how to reduce common hospital-related risks like delirium, dehydration, and falls, and how to support physical wellbeing through meaningful interactions.

Wearing bright gold polo shirts, the volunteers became affectionately known as “golden angels”. Their impact was immediate and profound.

“Volunteers provided emotional support, sat one-on-one with patients, offered gentle hand and foot massages, and helped engage them in therapeutic activities,” Ms Bateman explained. “They also assisted with practical tasks like encouraging hydration and nutrition, promoting gentle exercise, helping with hearing and vision aids, and keeping patients oriented.”

Families felt the difference.

“I talked to the volunteers to work out when I couldn’t be there so they could be with Dad,” one family member shared. “And when I was around, they could go help someone else.”

Staff noticed the change too. A hospital manager commented, “the flow on effect of volunteers assisting with feeding, hydration, supervision and social interactions was providing staff with time to be able to plan, prioritise and deliver their clinical care more effectively and equitably. It really helped us manage our workload.”

Encouraged by the success of the pilot, the NSW Agency for Clinical Innovation (ACI) funded Ms Bateman to develop a Volunteer Dementia and Delirium Care Implementation and Training resource to support replication in other NSW hospitals. Subsequently, the Commonwealth Department of Social Services funded a larger study using this resource across seven rural hospitals in Southern NSW in 2016–2017. The results echoed the pilot—fewer falls, happier patients, more supported staff.

Then, in 2020, the volunteer training program was adapted for residential aged care homes, where it continued to thrive.

Recognising that face-to-face training wasn’t always practical, the team partnered with Dementia Training Australia in 2023 to bring the program online. With support from the Department of Health and Ageing, they developed a free, interactive, evidence-based course accessible nationwide.

Now, volunteers, nurses, personal care assistants, family carers, and community support workers can all take part.

Meanwhile, work is underway to convert the ACI hospital-based face to face training program into an online format as well.

As for Alison’s* mother, the difference of being supported by a volunteer on a subsequent visit to hospital was deeply personal and transformed her experience.

“They helped feed her when she couldn’t do it herself,” Alison said. “Just knowing someone was with her—I can’t even explain what a relief that was. Without them, she would’ve been disoriented and scared.”

*Alison is a pseudonym