A puzzling title, you might think, but when it is explained to you in simple terms and related to many of our less fortunate senior citizens, it begins to make a lot of sense.

Helen Rollin, home manager of Oakwood House, Ipswich, one of a range of support housing and care services in the country provided by the Anchor Trust, spoke to the Rotary Club on March 24 and gave us an insight into some of the work being done to give older people with mental health needs the opportunity to live and be happy in a homely environment.

Oakwood House, she said, was a special home for people with dementia - "for people who may sit with their eyes closed but are not asleep’’

The task was to "tap in’’ to people’s minds beyond the disease. For example: if someone wanted to get up at 5 am to have a bath, they were allowed to do so. Residents were allowed a lot of freedom and great efforts were made to get beyond the dementia to find ways of communicating.

Helen recalled one old lady who spent hours unpicking a tablecloth and the mystery was why she was doing it. Then one day the lady’s husband explained that his wife used to do a lot of sewing – and this was what she was doing in her mind.

"I believe they deserve to have the best nursing care for the life they no longer have,’’ said Helen. "I want them to be remembered for the person they were.’’

Oakwood House currently caters for 24 elderly people, many of them still resident since the home was opened 11 years ago. The waiting time for vacancies can be anything between 18 months to four years because of the specialist treatment being offered.

As Helen pointed out: "We offer a person a place for life’’.