Creative Spaces: memory cafes

dementia, communities & environments

Our Creative Spaces in the Community project is using the outdoors and nature-focused activities to build social networks, foster independence and enhance the physical and mental health of older people living with dementia in rural communities in Cornwall.

We'll be using this section as a place to generally share our thoughts on dementia and those it affects, including relevant projects, events, activities etc. If we've read it, written it, seen it or heard it and we think it should be 'out there' then here's where we'll share it.

Showing posts with label memory cafes. Show all posts

Drop-ins, Memory Cafes and the start of something new!

June and July have been busy months for Creative Spaces in the Community.

Our drop-in sessions in St. Austell, St. Dennis and Roche created useful links with people living in those communities; not just dementia carers but people in the community that I call 'connectors'. You know, those people who know almost everybody. Through them we are connecting with local schools, health centres, NEET groups (young people not in education, employment or training), libraries (including community libraries and mobile library services) and community cafes.

our drop-in sessions in ClayTAWC, St. Dennis (top left), Rest & Play cafe, Roche
(top and bottom right) and St.Austell Library (bottom left)

Meanwhile our work with Cornwall's Memory Cafes continues; last month it was Saltash and Penzance (not on the same day thankfully........that would be some travel!). This month I've been to Redruth and St. Ives and shortly Downderry. Memory Cafes are fun and taxing at the same time. We've made Memory Postcards, Nature Scrapbooks, woven hazel baskets and hanging decorations (both part of our Weaving Tales activity).

top left: Nature Scrapbooks; Top right: Memory Postcards;
bottom left and right: Weaving Tales

You concentrate on ensuring that people are getting the most out of the activity, supporting them when needed but at the same time it's just so enjoyable chatting with everyone and watching people engage with each other. I always leave feeling shattered but with a smile on my face!

So what is there to look forward to next? Well, following on from the drop-in sessions we'll be developing one or two small projects in St. Dennis and Roche, involving people with dementia, carers and community members. The aim is to start these projects soon, run them for a couple of months and then review their level of effectiveness in helping people to feel healthy and happy. More about those later.

We've also recently formed a group of dementia support providers with Age UK, Memory Matters South West, Alzheimer's Society and United Response, amongst others. Our aim is to share our work together, find ways of working together and promote the benefits of creative social support for people affected by dementia through the health and social care sector in Cornwall. Not much to say on that at the moment but I'm hopeful it will develop into a strong network of organisations.

Wendy
Creative Spaces Project Manager

Nature in Verse

Direct contact with natural things and being outdoors provides, in my opinion, the best way to connect with nature as well as providing natural, sensory spaces for social interaction. On occasion, however, that's not always possible. To help in those instances we provide alternative creative ways in which people with dementia and their carers can access nature through less direct contact. Not as emotionally connecting but strong enough to allow people to socially connect through conversation.

One example is our nature poetry game in which we use the throw of the dice to determine the choice of a nature-based word. We have been using this approach in various Memory Cafes in Cornwall. In small groups, people take turns throwing the dice until each group has between 5 - 8 words. Each group is tasked with creating one verse for the whole poem. They create 5 or 6 lines for their verse based around the selected words.

It is these nature-based words stimulating people to recollect their memories of nature that help make the connections; not just between people and outdoor places but between individuals, because nature-themed memories help create shared experiences and/or interests. Memories need not be solely associated with learning about someone's past. They are an introduction to help us better understand the life of an individual in the present and from there it's just a step to a conversation about future hopes and dreams.......but that's another post on another day!

Back to connecting with nature through verse. If you've read previous posts you'll have seen the two poems created by the Bude and St. Austell Memory Cafes (see previous post 'Poetry for the Senses' 4th April 2014). Truro Memory Cafe members recently joined this list of budding bards. Their poem is below along with the poems created by Bude and St. Austell Memory Cafes.....just to save you from going back to a previous post!

To see how these poems have been created follow this LINK to our short film of the activity on YouTube.

Creative Spaces in the Community

What else would you do on a wet and windy Saturday but launch your dementia project?

That was us, a week ago, in an empty shop unit in St. Austell........and what a great day we had!

Joined by representatives from Age UK Cornwall and IOS, Memory Matters South West and St. Austell Memory Cafe, we had tables with information, guidance leaflets showcasing what each organisation could offer. There were free cup cakes and of course our lovely nature-based activities that people could join in - providing opportunity for conversation. Our friend Jo, from Hedgerow and Herb, came along with a lovely selection of herb plants to smell, touch and taste and there was music and films going on in the background to help create a friendly atmosphere.

Despite the horrible weather, around 40 people dropped in that day. Most of them were unpaid carers, family members of people diagnosed with dementia, but we also had neighbours looking for information to help their friend and carer living next door and young people dropping in because a grandparent had dementia. So, in addition to the project information and dementia support advice that was provided, the event turned out to be an interesting reflection of how much dementia affects our communities.

To find out more about our free activity downloads and dementia-related films you can go to our Creative Spaces page on our website HERE.

We'll be doing more localised events and workshops in and around the St. Austell area; helping people living with dementia in more rural areas through our Creative Spaces in the Community Project and then later in the year we'll be in and around Liskeard. As the project progresses it will extend into other areas of Cornwall over the next 4 years.

Poetry for the senses

Bude and St. Austell Memory Cafe members have been showing how creative the brain can be, using mental stimulation within the memory 'landscape' that nature can provide.

I ran a Nature's Poetry activity at both cafes and here are the outstanding finished poems. Members sat in small groups with one person to scribe and each group developed their own verses which were later put together. I hope you enjoy reading their creative pieces....they should be proud of their work, it's humerous, reminiscent, creative and hopefully inspiring to other dementia support groups/memory cafes or dementia carers who are looking for new ways to support and stimulate people living with dementia.

Wendy

Creative Spaces in the Community Project Manager

Creative Carers

It's amazing how creative you can be with materials found around the house and out in the garden, such as twigs, wool, ribbon, leaves and flowers. Here's a photographic montage of our recent dementia community events that took place at Heartlands in Pool, Launceston Town Hall and the Eden Project. Hopefully the images will reflect the amazing time that we all had; all down to the wonderful organisations who participated, the support of the venues and the attendance of carers, families, friends, care professionals, people living with dementia and the general public.

cress-growing kits - free
to take away

Free Creative Spaces resource
bags for home carers

Colourful tables help to attract people to activities

our Nature Palette activity - brimming
with spring flowers, herbs and leaves

Sue McDermott (Memory Cafe
Network Manager) chats with an
interested couple

People enjoying the
Weaving Tales activity

Trainee nurses engage with
the Nature Mobiles activity

Singing for the Brain sessions stimulate
your motor neurons and have your endorphins leaping for joy!

Our Sensory Trees activity table at Eden
looks good enough to eat!

A jumbled picture in our quiz sits behind the Reflections
South West stand..........yes, they're real cakes!

Quizzers post their answers
and hope to win a prize

One lovely Weaving Tales ornament made by a gentleman
with a lot of patience!

The Hedgerow and Herbs table full and
evocative...just like an English hedge

Commissioned by Arts for Health, Victoria Bampfield-
Hammond encourages participants to create an amazing,
enormous birds nest.....

..including me

Picture books from the library offer
reminiscence stimulation

We connect so easily through 'making' together

Conversations cross generations

Whatever our age or ability, we are a social species that
loves coming together and interacting in meaningful ways

Organisations who participated included:
Age UK
The Alzheimer's Society
Arts for Health Cornwall
Memory Matters South West
Reflections South West
Memory Cafes Network
Launceston Memory Cafe
Dementia Friendly Communities
Cornwall Care
Time for Change
WRVS
Carers Rights

Their advice and information was invaluable to the families and carers who attended and helped raise awareness among the members of public who dropped in.

Thank you to everyone for making these events worthwhile and a whole lot of fun!

Wendy

Creative Spaces Project Manager

Valuable moments

What do you get if you cross hazel twigs with a ball of plasticine and some knitting wool? A rather bizarre looking Shaun the sheep?

Actually no; what you get is an afternoon of giggling, creativity and an impromptu game of "Cat's cradle" with members of the Penzance Memory cafe.

Start by dishing out the plasticine. Stand back (a there's no need to light any touch paper) and watch them relax, smile, communicate and engage with each other as they roll, knead and squeeze it. It seems that rolling it not only warms up the plasticine but warms up people as well!

Now push some short sticks into the plasticine, throw lots of coloured wool into the mix and watch people weave away their anxieties. Different weaving patterns come into play as people develop their own styles, partnerships build as people work together; sometimes as the weaver sometimes as the person stabilising the twigs until the wool forms a strong bond between them. For a final touch, add flowers and leaves.

All the while the room buzzes with conversations:
"I remember my mother putting pins in the top of an old cotton reel"
"Oh yes, they call that French Knitting; I remember my grandma showing me how to do that"
"Do you know the cat's cradle?"
"I know we used to do it at school but I can't remember how I did it"
"I'll show you, wait here"

A few minutes later that lady came back with a loop of wool and showed me how to play the Cat's Cradle.

Our activities aren't about the quality of the finished product (if there is one). They're about the journey you take through them; the person you spend that time with, the conversation you had, the things you learned about each other........that is what's important. If you happen to come away with a lovely object that you've made yourself, that's grand, but that's not where the power to make us feel valued and part of our group/community or society is lurking. That power is ours in that moment when we share a part of ourselves with someone else, whether through laughter, knowledge, a skill or a memory.

Wendy
Creative Spaces Project Manager

Shadows of nature

Last week we did a Shadow Box activity with members of the Fowey Memory Cafe. Guests, relatives and volunteers worked together to build their boxes and then fill them with freshly picked garden flora, pressed flowers, wildlife stickers and stamps.

It was our first time using this activity and it was chosen to see if it would encourage the guests to share stories and memories, to stimulate their creativeness and, most importantly, to give them a sense of achievement (they built the frames themselves as well as decorating inside the boxes).

What a result - the table buzzed as people chatted about places they grew up in or had visited, their interest in wildlife, plants, growing things, pets etc and, for some guests, how long it had been since they'd used wood and carpentry skills!

It was such a lovely afternoon; we even ran over time and into their tea/coffee and cake break.........and no-one mentioned it; not one complaint. They were too busy chatting and finishing off their displays.

I've been thinking about the activity since. I admit I didn't know why they were called Shadow Boxes. Wikipedia provided an explanation

A shadow box is an enclosed glass-front case containing an object or objects presented in a thematic grouping with artistic or personal significance.

Typically given to people in military service, on retirement, they contained awards and medals that the person had achieved during their career.

It's pleasing to think that they have now been used to display items that help people living with Dementia to connect to the world around them and that, in building them, they have awarded themselves with a sense of achievement.

Wendy

Creative Spaces Project Manager

New Year, New Resources

A strong focus of the project in the New Year is the development of some new resources and activities to support home carers and people living with dementia at home.

We are busy developing and trialing new ideas and Memory Cafe members in Cornwall have been very helpful in trying out these activities for us at the cafes and at home. We want to ensure that we produce good quality activities that support dementia care at home, that engage people together and encourage people to go outside, get some fresh air, feel better in themselves and hopefully have the chance to socially interact with other people. So far the feedback from users has been very positive; even people who wouldn't normally do creative activities at home have said how much they enjoyed spending meaningful time with their partner in their own garden and house and that they were already thinking of how they could adapt certain activities for the festive season.

A selection of these resources will be available for free at our forthcoming community events in 2013. We are organising 3 large events in June next year in partnership with Age UK. These events are aimed at people living with dementia in the community, home carers, families and friends and outreach care workers. The theme, of course, is outside spaces and activities and there will be a wide variety of creative activities for people to try, films to watch and advice and information from organisations that support people with dementia. It's a great opportunity for us to reach people who perhaps don't yet make the best use of their own garden or local green spaces as places to support dementia care and, in the case of public spaces, where they can get involved in social activities that help to reduce feelings of isolation and depression.

We'll keep you up-to-date with news of these events nearer the time.

So in the meantime I hope you enjoy the following photos of some of the highlights from this year. Have a wonderful Christmas and New Year!

Wendy
Creative Spaces Project Manager