Clare Mason writes:
Pathways is a group for people affected by young onset dementia in the Bradford district. We have members who are people living with dementia diagnosed under the age of 65, people with dementia who are now older, family members and former carers. Often, during or face to face group meetings, we separate to enable people to discuss the issues relating to them and their circumstances.
We meet monthly in the University as they give us venue space for free and there’s car parking, toilets etc. We meet in an evening as many of our members work through the day.
We also hold social activities such as bowling, cage cricket, trips out and meals. We also have an annual supported holiday.
Of course the current virus outbreak changed all that. We’re now meeting almost every other night by Zoom and on these sessions we have a general chat to find out how everyone is or a topic picked by the group. We also have quizzes and have tried charades which worked well.
Our holiday has had to be cancelled as it was to Llandudno in June. We’re hoping to go in October and the group are desperate to get away and have much needed fun and face to face contact but we’ll see – fingers crossed!
During or Zoom meetings, many members were raising the issue of lack of exercise and the impact of that due to ‘lockdown’. So, we contacted a physio, Nicole at the University of Bradford. Nicole has created some sessions with varying levels of difficulty for the group and we’ve set up a private Facebook group to share these and discuss how people are finding trying them out. Nicole, who is the Lead Neurological Physiotherapist at the University is also giving advice to group members who are posting feedback on the sessions within the group (or she’s doing this privately if people prefer). This is something new so we’ll see how it goes!
That’s all from Pathways in Bradford!
Join the Pathways – supporting people affected by young onset dementia Facebook page.
See more details about Pathways on their DEEP group page.
