A psychiatric nurse in Gwynedd is hoping to help people to continue to communicate in Welsh as they get older.

Research shows people with dementia lose the ability to communicate in their second language over time. It is therefore fundamental that services are designed to meet the need to receive treatment and care through the medium of Welsh.

Edwin Humphreys is a psychiatric nurse at Hafod Hedd day centre near Pwllheli. He is part of the team responsible for conducting assessments for people living with dementia. In these assessments, a consultant asks questions to the person with dementia and then assesses the answers.

Edwin said: “Recently a lady had been assessed through the medium of English with the doctor, and had not scored very well at all; and the doctor diagnosed her with very advanced dementia.

“But, through my conversations with the lady here, I knew that she was much better than that, so we decided to conduct the same assessment through the medium of Welsh, and she scored something like 12 points higher than she had done in English. This is a staggering difference and affects so many things.

"If a person has to go into residential care, it’s important that they are assigned to the right places that can provide the right service for them. “

When he isn’t working as a nurse, Edwin is a well-known musician in Wales and plays the saxophone and other instruments with several Welsh bands – Anweledig, Bob Delyn a’r Ebillion and Geraint Løvgreen a’r Enw Da to name just a few. He has brought his love of music to his work.

“We introduce a lot of music here in the unit,” he said.

“Music can really help to bring back memories. Sometimes, when you play stuff like We’ll meet again or Perry Como, Elvis and so on, you’ll see a lot of blank faces staring at you.

"But once you start playing Welsh songs by Hogia Llandegai or Hogia’r Wyddfa or someone like that, the faces immediately light up and a memory is triggered. It can make such a difference.”

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