It was wonderful today to celebrate an award made to one of our valued DEEPers. Wendy Burton at Making Space in Derby is one of the founders of Lifting the Cloud. Wendy has been awarded A 3rd Sector Care Award The Collaboration Award for her work engaging the whole community to support people living with dementia. Massive congratulations to Wendy who couldn’t be on the Zoom today as she was getting down and dirty at the allotment. Wendy has been a particularly faithful friend throughout lock down on facilitators Zooms and we all shared a DEEP appreciation of cake as a means to see us through and brighten our days (Thanks to Charlie Mackesy). Thanks and congratulations to Wendy for her constant heart and generosity.
We were joined today by a lady who is applying to do a PhD – she wanted to have a chat with DEEPers about how she could make sure she made meaningful connection to enable meaningful contributions. She said that joining the Zoom she “found the suggestions really useful” and she added “I really enjoyed finding out more about DEEP and what a valuable contribution it is making to people’s lives”.
We were also joined by a lady who was due to facilitate her first DEEP group the next day. She said “I was feeling so daunted but have been so encouraged by generous members of the facilitators network. Relax, be myself, let people talk to each other – and don’t be afraid of silence! Less nervous now I’ve met the lovely facilitators. Still think I will need to stick a band aid over my mouth though” It is an interesting mind-shift or is it? To make the transition from being a facilitator in other groups and have a background it training over many years that the idea of facilitating a DEEP group (embracing all the DEEP values) may feel a bit daunting. There was no doubt of the DEEP conscientiousness of this lady to get it right. https://www.dementiavoices.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/DEEP-Values-2021-1.pdf
We had a great conversation as ever fueled by humour, and agreeing to differ, about the rooms that meetings take place in. Naming no names, but somebody has a DEEP aversion to meetings in Church Halls. In the main this aversion is because some are dark, dingy and cold…. but is there also something about feeling that is an appropriate space to meet for example if they are of another religion? The golden nugget comes back down to wherever your groups feels most comfortable and safe. There was concern about whether a room with a big window on one side a big stained glass panel on another side would be distracting and therefore not the right place to meet? It was suggested that people could sit with their back to the window and the stain glass might be quite an eye pleasing thing to look at. Again however it has to be the groups who decide what space best meets their needs. SO may different factors, but the awareness and the question mark to check with the groups is the healthy part. Maybe that is the biggest anxiety as a facilitators used to sorting it all out is to be in a position where you don’t have to expect you have all the answers yourself.
A wonderful note from our facilitators meeting last week where we focused the launch of the facilitators booklet https://www.dementiavoices.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Top-Tips-for-facilitators.pdf A facilitator from a new group came along and referred to the new group members not being ‘typical DEEPers’ . Of course several people asked well what is a typical DEEPer? Maybe there is an assumption that every group have strong established voices who are activists. Activists and voices often grow from a quiet place where people have been silenced/dis-empowered/disabled or just getting used to now having a diagnosis of dementia. She described a lady in her group who was silent for the first few meetings – they weren’t sure if she was getting anything out of coming. Suddenly one day she said “I live with dementia”. How powerful is that! Perhaps the safe space that was created gave her the confidence to say and accept it.
On another note, from another meeting, a gentleman called Bob described seeing the difference in the people in his group who had come to terms and acceptance and those who hadn’t. The new found confidence, hope and acceptance shone through he said.
The next facilitator meetings are:
Wednesday 16th March at 12.30 – 1.30
Wednesday 16th March 3pm (for people without a diagnosis of dementia) with a focus on enabling/supporting quieter voices
Wednesday 23rd March at 12.30 will be a session with Rachael Litherland discussing your thoughts about the DEEP virtual celebrations in December
Wednesday 30th March at 12.30 Focus on Young Onset Dementia
To book a place on any of the sessions above please email Anna@myid.org.uk
