Where else can you get a Chrysalis Springboard(ing) from a group of Great Camden Minds with Summat to say ? A chat from Hexham to Wigan to Oldham and London via Powys early on a Tuesday evening.
So Chrysalis has a new coordinator in Gina who came along meeting Paul from Springboard which is a large mixed group of care partners and people with dementia. We also met with Kerry from Wigan who has had a difficult time working in different places supporting the COVID infrastructure and Tracey from London who likewise has been pulled in all directions over the last year or so.
The folk from ‘Summat to say’ are mainly a group who met and know each other well after having met through a post diagnosis group and have remained in touch supporting each other ever since. So outside of the group they have been keeping in touch meeting up of their own accord but will be moving to a new venue to meet up again as a group. They are keen to think about how to celebrate the DEEP festival (watch this space)
Tracey talked about how exhausted she felt after the group meeting up today. We discussed how in her role (other than facilitator) is to support people with individual issues. The boundaries felt blurred in the meeting and felt like she had come out of the meeting with a long list of things to do. We talked about separating her roles and only addressing these individual issues outside of the group meeting space. We considered the notion that she should not be an indispensable font of all knowledge in that space. That the group was more about sharing and learning and supporting themselves. The time felt right to review the terms of reference with the group about why they are meeting, what for and how.
The issue of dominant voices was raised including people who may have opinions which may affect how somebody else responds to something. For example how do you respond when somebody says “oh that care agency is rubbish” when it is based on one persons experience and you are working really hard to encourage somebody to accept support. Another group member collects all the latest information from newspapers which are not necessarily evidence based and shares with the group (in quite a time consuming process). We all agreed it is about finding the balance. There is a sense that groups are finding themselves and getting to know their ‘norms’ again – reviewing terms of reference, and especially if there are new members may be a good way for everyone (including the facilitator) to re-group.
It was also noted how important the yellow ‘I want to speak’ cards are in preventing the meeting collapsing in to chaos! Particularly important when you have a group of people who may have hearing difficulties.
The next facilitators session is Wednesday 10th November 12.30 to 1.30 where we will be discussing the issue of size of groups, supporting the different needs of group members.
