INTERVIEW: How working on a farm near Lancaster is helping people with dementia

Thursday, 1 June 2023 07:56

By Greg Lambert @greglam72

Rebecca Dobson who runs Lower House Sensory Farm

A woman has told Beyond Radio how her farm near Lancaster is helping people with dementia by getting them involved in the great outdoors.

Lower House Sensory Farm near Wray invites people who have Alzheimer's or learning disabilities to enjoy country life with positive results.

The farm is run by Rebecca Dobson, who realised how much farm life can help people with dementia through her own family experience.

LISTEN to our interview with Rebecca

"My father Malcolm had vascular dementia and Alzheimer's," said Rebecca.

"He was a very active chap. He was a skipper on a trawler.

"Sixteen years ago he started developing symptoms. In the last few years of his life he struggled quite a lot with walking, motor functions, swallowing. We saw how destructive it is.

"Every time my father came up to the farm for some respite he was a completely different person. So we understood the positivity of being outside, green spaces and working with animals. The ability to sleep better, working up an appetite, and providing a sense of self.

"We would give him a task, something simple. It wouldn't matter if it was completed but it made him feel part of something."

Now Lower House Sensory Farm helps other people who are referred because they are living with dementia or have learning disabilities.

They get the chance to work with the farm's animals - horses, ponies, tortoises, pugs, ducks, geese and more - as well as spend time in the farm's fruit gardens and vegetable spaces, and might help with feeding, 'mucking out', sowing or planting.