UK Dementia Congress 2013

They should re-title this the UK Inspirational Dementia Congress!  Every year I return from a UKDC feeling inspired by someone or something.   This year we had a poster presentation at the Congress representing the work of the Creative Spaces project and our Let Nature Feed Your Senses (LNFYS) project, which has increased opportunities for care homes to visit farms and become more connected to nature and the farming environment through sensory-rich activities.  If you'd like to read more about that particular project then please visit our main website HERE.

Poster presentation; apologies for the poor
quality!

I was interested in finding creative, engaging projects that put the person with dementia at the heart of them and hearing more about the current hot topic of dementia-friendly communities.  Here are some of my personal highlights:

Circles of Support presentation:  this is a partnership between Innovations in Dementia and NDTi (National Development Team for Inclusion).   They are supporting people living with dementia to connect with families and communities in Mid Devon, Dorset, West London and Hampshire; to make changes and allow them to stay connected with people and live their lives.

How the ‘circle’ works is that a group of people come together to support one person living with dementia, they are led by a facilitator. This is someone who is essential to setting up the group and helping it to run.  The people in the circle can be anyone, not just family and friends.

So far, these circles have helped:

• A man inform his employers of his diagnosis
• Introduce couples to each other, to help maintain their social interactions
• Find volunteers to support and take part in chosen activities with people living with dementia 
• A family organise live-in care
• Walking groups to get people living with dementia involved in their rambles

This project has been funded by the Dept of Health for 3 years (2011 – 2014).  More information and findings can be found at:  http://www.ndti.org.uk/uploads/files/Circles_Insight_2013.pdf

There were several presentations on Dementia Friendly Communities:

York was the first DFC in England.  They carried out walking interviews with people living with dementia, had debates, visits, interviews and films to find out how they could improve the city.  Bradford followed with a lot of awareness being increased within the South Asian communities.  However, the town that drew my interest was MOTHERWELL in Scotland. 

Motherwell created a dementia-friendly environment in a small town centre that was suffering from economic depression; closing shops and run-down areas were the 'norm'. NHS Lanarkshire and Alzheimer Scotland worked together and encouraged businesses and services to sign up.....apparently using techniques seen on The Apprentice and Dragon’s Den!  Their USP was “Be the first!” which seemed to have worked really well because they won this year’s Best Dementia Friendly Initiative at the Alzheimer Scotland Awards.  

From a creative point of view there was the Music Mirrors project.  Musical ‘self portraits’ developed with people living with dementia.   Significant music and not preferred music is compiled from conversations with people living with dementia. Music that links people to places, events or other people is what's important here, not what their favourite music is. These musical pieces are then linked by short written snippets from the interviewees.  The recordings are saved onto a CD, USB stick or even linked to YouTube via emails.  This allows them to be able to accompany the individual no matter where they are living.  They can be used in reminiscence sessions but also to communicate and engage with people with dementia.  

This project reminded me very much of how we engaged the Trevarna residents in their garden re-design, by looking at the significance of outdoor environments to them and gathering memories and personal stories rather than asking the question “What’s your favourite flower?”.  We got so much from that approach and I think these musical portraits will do the same.......it’s a good recipe!

I also went to the “Whose Shoes?” workshop.  This was only a taster presentation of their on-line "Whose Shoes?" toolkit.  So it was a shame it was too short a time for them to talk about everything they wanted to but they were still able to provide a flavour of what this toolkit can do.  Gill is a very inspirational speaker, you can sense that this is something very personal for her.  We sat in small groups and were given several statements (provided by either carer/business provider/person with dementia/family member) and asked to discuss the statement and write down a precis of our discussion.  It's at this point that the whole room buzzed to the sound of conversations.  That in itself is always a good indicator that people are participating in your session.   The notes were then provided to a graphic artist who was making a visual representation of the discussion outcomes.  I hope that we get to see them on the "Whose Shoes?" BLOG at some point.

If you've never been to a UK Dementia Congress then please do try and go one year.  The people that attend, whether speakers or not, are so inspirational you can't help but feel invigorated by it all.  I'm off to try and scribble down all these new thoughts I have about outdoors and dementia now...........

Wendy

Project Manager

To Brighton and beyond

The UK Dementia Congress begins in Brighton tomorrow evening and I'll be making my way there to give a presentation on the project on Wednesday afternoon; specifically the use of the poems and their digital representations as methods of evaluation.

Karen Hayes, the poet involved will be there to talk about the process that she uses and we'll also be showing 2 of the films during our session.

The full show reel of all 6 short films will be on view during the lunchtime period.

This is a great opportunity to get the Creative Spaces message to a wider audience and I hope it leads to more conversations with care professionals about the use of outdoor spaces as places to connect people.

I'll let you know how it all went next week.

Wendy

Project Manager

National Lottery Awards - vote now!

There's a mixture of mayhem and jubilation in the office at the moment.  Creative Spaces has been short-listed for a National Lottery Award!  Along with 9 other projects we are in the semi finals for the Best Health  Project category and up for public voting.

This means that from yesterday until midnight on the 22nd July we need your help to get this project through to the final and to have the opportunity to raise awareness on a national scale of all that the project has achieved.

And by that I mean the achievements by everyone involved; the people with dementia, the young people, carers (professional and non-professional), volunteers, community members and health and social care professionals in Cornwall who have all contributed to the success of the project, as well as our combined team of the Sensory Trust and Cornwall Care.


Please support us and help us to highlight this project and the importance of outdoor environments in reconnecting people with dementia with their communities and increasing public understanding.


You can vote through the National Lottery Awards website or phone 0844 836 9705


Thank you for your support; fingers crossed!








Wendy
Creative Spaces Project Manager

We can, we will! - sharing ideas

At the recent ADI conference I went to a breakfast meeting about the ADI's online library website - I Can! I Will!  This is an online library of ideas; a place where you can browse other people's initiatives and suggestions about raising awareness of dementia, supporting dementia care and/or helping reduce the stigma associated with it.  Contributions are provided by people with dementia, carers, researchers, professionals and volunteers.  People add their own ideas too; it's a great opportunity to share and to discover new approaches and methods for improving the lives of people with dementia.  

The website needs some awareness-raising of its own, so we're doing our best to help and I've added a link on the right hand side of this page; or you can click on the link above.  Whilst your looking at the site why not add your own idea, if you have one; the more we share, the more we broaden the spectrum of people involved in dementia care and raising the quality of life for people with dementia, the greater the support we can provide collectively.

Creative Spaces already has a place on the 'library shelf' but I encourage you to browse the various 'books' and see what other innovative projects/ideas are out there and when you've done that, tell others!

Creative activities - one topic among many on
the I Can! I Will! website

Wendy Brewin
Creative Spaces Project Manager

International conference poster presentation

The 27th Alzheimer's Disease International (ADI) conference was held last week, at the ExCel Centre in London and I was there to present a poster of the Creative Spaces project.

Stuart, our Assistant Director and graphic designer extraordinaire had designed the poster; taking my more-than-meaty text (I have too much to say!) and moulding it into concise and informative bullet points.  Add to that a colourful display of graphics and images and we had a poster that caught the eye of many delegates.

I was accompanied by Angie MacDonald, a PhD student who is using Creative Spaces as a case study for her research in restorative outdoor environments and between us we had a busy Friday lunchtime chatting to all kinds of people who were curious to know more about the project.  

Creative Spaces Poster presentation

A delegate pauses to read our poster

Questions were a balance between the topics of garden design for people with dementia and how gardens could be used to engage residents with the community.  We spoke about the various activities and approaches used, the involvement of young people and Trevarna residents together and that the garden was designed not as a sensory or therapeutic environment but as an inclusive environment taking in elements that supported all users. Most of those we spoke to were care/nursing home managers and care staff but several other poster presenters also came over to ask about the project.

Ours was the only poster there representing the benefits of using outdoor environments and related activities in connecting people with dementia with their communities and we stood out amongst a sea of posters covering research, care systems, reminiscence and memory cafes around the world.  There were probably only about 6 posters present (out of around 100) that were based on using creative techniques to engage people with dementia; a sign that the focus is still very much on scientific and medical approaches. It seems that providing quality of life through creative engagement with other people is still not being given the same consideration - I like to believe that we at least provided some food for thought that afternoon. They do say 'from little acorns big oaks grow'!

Wendy Brewin

Creative Spaces Project Manager

New year, new hopes

 A new year and the last 8 months of the project to throw ourselves in to!  Invitations from various memory cafes around the county are coming in and myself and Ellie are looking forward to travelling around and sharing the project's activities with carers and volunteers within the community.  We're also busy planning  a series of 6 community workshops in the St. Austell, Falmouth and Redruth areas this spring/summer; taking the processes used in the project to people and carers in the community.  We'll post up more information about locations and dates when we have them.

We're delighted to have had an abstract accepted for poster presentation at the Alzheimer's Disease International (ADI) conference being held at the ExCel conference centre in London from March 7th - 10th. This is in partnership with Angie MacDonald, a PhD student at University College Falmouth who is researching gardens as restorative environments and using Creative Spaces as a case study. If you're attending the conference and would like to come along and chat about any aspect of the project Angie and I will be present at the poster exhibition from 12.45 - 13.45 on Friday 9th.

The importance of outdoor environments in dementia care is slowly appearing on people's radar, mostly still as places to enhance the lives of residents.  With Creative Spaces, we have taken additional steps and are using the garden at Trevarna and outdoor-related activities to support staff, visitors and the community as well as the residents. I hope we'll meet people at the conference who are doing something similar or at least are keen to do so.

Jake chats with Bernice about her memories of visiting
Lanhydrock House and Gardens as a child

Here's to a creative and stimulating year!



Wendy
Project Manager

Don't forget the popcorn

I've just come back from attending the UK Dementia Congress in Liverpool completely inspired by the people I met and the great things that are happening to support a better quality of life for people with dementia; particularly by people with dementia and how this is being achieved through the media of film.  For me, these were the highlights of the conference:

Salmagundi Films and Housing 21: Their Frames of Mind project is aimed at telling people's stories through stop motion animation.  Salmagundi Films worked with staff and residents at The Watermill care home in Walsall to produce their own individual short animations using personal items. Sections of the film were shown during the session and I was particularly touched by Ivy's animation which involved her reading aloud a poem which she had written for her daughter's 40th Birthday. It was more poignant because Ivy didn't recognise it as her poem and read it as though it was the first time she'd seen it, exclaiming at the end how lovely it was.

Agnes and Nancy: A film made by Anne Milne and produced by Ruth Bartlett from Southampton University and Caroline Hick from Bradford University as part of the No Limits - Reimagining Life with Dementia project. The film is not available publicly yet but I've linked through to a website where you can keep an eye on it's development.  Shown at the conference, it was a quietly powerful and uplifting film that portrays Agnes's search to find some clarity in her 'new life' and how spending time with Nancy helped her to do that.  Called simply "Agnes and Nancy" it's a film everyone should watch so keep an eye on it's development, buy it when it becomes available and show it to all your friends, relatives, work colleagues and anyone else you can. If they're not prepared to sit for 20 minutes to watch it then strap them into a seat and make them!

Of course there were other interesting sessions that I enjoyed and I could write till the cows come home about all of them, but it was these two in particular that filled my thoughts during my 8 hour journey home.  They have spurred me on to think about more ways in which we can use outdoor environments to benefit people with dementia, their families and communities and that's why I felt I had to mention them.

 Group days out support conversation, feelings of
belonging and a better understanding of others

Wendy

Project Manager