Well – here we are back again after a a bit of a break.
It feels like there may be a few lights shining through ajar doorways. As George said ‘It feels like we have been banging our head against a brick wall for years’. The shining lights might be because a service has been invested in, a grant application has been successful or you have made a difference to somebody’s life.
We heard of a professional man who was afraid that anybody would find out that he had dementia. Refused to accept anything through the post for fear of being found out. This is not uncommon. But it took just two meetings for a difference to be made to his life and the relief he felt in meeting and talking with others in a similar situation. And that is how change and hope happen.
LikeMinded in Mold has been awarded a grant which involved no red tape, no bureaucratic processes because the man in the position to do something absolutely ‘got it’. They have three hours, every week, of paid support of a co-facilitator to enable the group to happen. COVID forced their meeting venue to shut before Christmas denying the group the opportunity to meet for over a month. They are hopeful of coming back together next week and have missed each other.
STAND have now formed a second sister group in Fife for older folk (over 65s) called Kinghorn. It is small, but valuable and is formed with the graduates of STAND’s ‘Good Life with Dementia’ courses. Ruth has been busy writing away trying to apply for further funding and is hoping that through the connections they have in the memory service and health board they will get a slice of some of Fife’s post-diagnosis moneys from Scottish Government.
We talked about some good news in Shropshire where a new integrated care system will recruit 4 new Admiral Nurses in addition to the existing 3 in Telford. Everybody will have access to a Dementia Navigator and there will be groups set up based on the values of DEEP.
Chrissy is a new member of the team working with Kim’s Cafe in Hampshire. She told us that the team of four are working with 6 GP practices. 4 practices regularly refer people but the other two don’t. So we discussed what are the barriers to the majority of people accessing support and services. Unfortunately the knowledge and attitudes of professionals and the over-cautious systems and people?
We shared details of ‘A Good Life with dementia’ course with Chrissy – ideally placed in primary care and GP practices to introduce this. http://www.yhscn.nhs.uk/media/PDFs/mhdn/Dementia/Whole%20Systems%20Events/2019%2009%2025/Damian%20Murphy%20250919.pdf
and also discussed the My Care Matters resource https://www.myfuturecare.org/about/
and A Friendly Face for anyone with dementia, who wants to talk to someone else living with dementia.
A Friendly Face is run by volunteers with a diagnosis of dementia. http://dsdc.bangor.ac.uk/dementia-friendly.php.en
George shared an article he had found about ‘Activities outside of the care setting for people with dementia’ as we were discussing the Outside Lives project which supports LikeMinded in Mold and STAND are also actively involved in outdoor activities.
https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/10/10/e040753
The conclusion from the research is that “Activities outside of the residential aged care setting have the potential to be effective at providing a range of benefits for people living with dementia” . As we all said – well we know that anyway. It feels like there are more non-dementia services who are more creative and willing to work to the ultimate of good health and well-being on just being human.
A good start to the year sharing, learning and supporting each other old and new faces.
Be part of the facilitator conversations – Zooms take place every Wednesday 12.30 – 1.30 – Please register a place by emailing on the Monday
