The topic for this SHINDIG was ‘The impact of Covid-19 and Lockdown’. This idea was taken to a ‘Tea and Talk’ meeting on the 25th of June and questions relating to this topic were discussed and adapted by people with Dementia, carers and facilitators. Five questions were agreed upon to use for July’s SHINIDIG.
This SHINDIG was attended by 24 people living with Dementia, family carers/supporters and was supported by 10 staff facilitators. As a consequence of Covid-19, both Tea and Talk and SHINDIG were delayed and unable to run in the usual format. Both events had to run virtually using Zoom. A significant aspect of SHINDIG valued by attendees, is the shared lunch which takes place prior to group discussions. Attempts were made to replicate some degree of social opportunity by placing people into ‘chat rooms’ on arrival. As attendees were mostly sharing PC’s at home, they were unable to make their usual choice regarding which type of group they joined, People with Dementia group, Carer group or a mixed group.
Lead facilitators’ recruited technical assistance from Sophie Tucker from the Alzheimer’s Society to aid the running of this first ‘virtual’ SHINDIG. A separate Zoom meeting took place with facilitators on the 3rd of July in order to prepare them and discuss any concerns They may have. The decision was made to limit the amount of attendees who were volunteers to those with an essential role. We did have expressions of interest from people wanting to attend in a ‘visitor’ capacity and will review if this is deemed appropriate in future.
Questions and prompts were used to guide discussions and responses were recorded by scribes allocated to each of four groups. Scribes kindly typed up their notes which have then been used to produce this report which reflects the key responses to the questions asked about the impact of Covid-19 and lockdown.
Read the full report here:
