Twiddle muffs, made in Spain, and sent with love to St George’s!
Agueda Gota, Older Person’s Assessment and Liaison Nurse at St George’s, mentioned to her mum that our dementia patients were in need of new twiddle muffs, which are specially made hand-warmers that keep them from picking at IV lines and clothing.
Agueda’s mum Nati, 75, decided to help out and ended up knitting 40 twiddle muffs for our patients.
Nati (pictured below), who lives in the small village of Blecua (population: approximately 20) in the Huesca province of Spain, hadn’t done much knitting before but rose to the challenge set by her daughter.
A twiddle muff is a hand warmer with multiple sensory stimulating attachments, such as ribbons and buttons. People with Alzheimer’s and dementia find comfort in repetitive sensory stimulation and the twiddle muffs provide and stop patients from picking at IV lines and clothing.
When Agueda last visited Blecua, she was surprised to find her mum had made so many: “I was only expecting one or two! I’d sent her one so she had an idea of what they look like, but she really used her imagination decorating them with different bits and knitting lots of different colours.
“We’ve already given out some to dementia patients on Richmond Ward, and Heberden, Rodney Smith and Caesar Hawkins Wards will get some too.”
Agueda will be home in January and will hopefully be bringing back another batch of twiddle muffs to St George’s then.
A big thank you to Agueda and her mum!
Picture caption: Alison Fitzgerald, Lead Nurse in our OPAL team, wtih Agueda Gota, OPAL Nurse, and the twiddle muffs!
