Tag: Dementia Awareness Week

Local dementia charity hitting the right notes

Monday 13th May heralds the beginning of Dementia Awareness Week in Scotland and a local music charity, the Forget Me Notes project, is looking to mark the occasion by releasing a recording of their trademark song after having spent a day in the confines of an Edinburgh recording studio.

Forget Me Notes was founded in 2018 by Alan Midwinter and Paul Barfoot and focusses on utilising music as a means of helping alleviate the symptoms of those who live with dementia.

Their activities include fortnightly performances by a 40 strong choir, regular music based attendances at care homes, community centres, parks and day centres as well as home visits for housebound sufferers. They also embrace modern technology by broadcasting their activities via ZOOM to people’s living rooms.

All in all Forget Me Notes undertakes in excess of 30 musical activities every month with a view to improving the lives of both those affected by dementia and their families.

Their song, aptly titled The Forget Me Notes song, was written by volunteers within the group and recorded by choir members and musicians in the professional surroundings of the Chamber Studios in Granton last year.

The recording has been circulated to local radio stations and can be found on www.forgetmenotes.org.uk/film&audio

Alan Midwinter, who is co-chief executive of the charity along with keyboard player and musical therapist Paul Barfoot, said: “It is a privilege to work with those living with dementia and their carers. We hope that this song will raise awareness and draw attention to the abilities of those living with dementia.”

For further information and photographs, contact:-

Alan Midwinter Co-Chief executive, The Forget Me Notes Project
Tel: 07588 894587
Email: alan@forgetmenotes.org.uk
Website: www.forgetmenotes.org.uk

Penicuik Dental Centre supports local patients living with dementia through its dedicated training programme

A Penicuik dentist is reinforcing its commitment to local people living with dementia by providing all staff members with access to a specialist initiative. The nationally recognised initiative ensures people living with dementia are supported in the local community and continue to access much-needed oral healthcare.  

This Dementia Awareness Week (22 May – 4 June) Penicuik Dental Centre, is supporting Alzheimer Scotland by becoming Dementia Friends, in its bid to raise awareness of the disease and to encourage Scotland to ‘see the person behind the diagnosis’ this campaigning week.   

A number of clinical and support staff at the practice are Dementia Friends trained through an official partnership with Alzheimer Scotland. The on-site team has received specialist training and information about dementia and the varying ways it can affect an individual.    

Measures that each practice has implemented to support people living with dementia include reassuring patients and making them comfortable within the practice, communicating in an accessible, jargon-free way, encouraging family members to attend appointments if preferable and encouraging self-directed care and decision making.  

Kevin Dow, Associate Dentist, Penicuik Dental Centre said:“ As part of our commitment to providing sector-leading care at community level, we have partnered with Alzheimer Scotland to ensure all of our patient-facing team members are ‘Dementia Friends’.   

“From the moment an appointment is required, through to the dental care they receive, communication with the patient and everything in between – we have a range of considerations that we take in to account to ensure that patient is cared for appropriately.”  

Penicuik Dental Centre, is part of the Clyde Munro Group, Scotland’s leading dental group that provides NHS and private dental care for patients across the country.   

Fiona Wood, Chief Operations Officer, Clyde Munro said: “Across the Clyde Munro Group, we have over 1,000 people who have become Dementia Friends. It’s imperative to the protection of accessible oral healthcare that we are appropriately trained at every local practice to support our patients living with dementia – and their families – in accessing dental care. 

“We are incredibly proud of the partnership we have with Alzheimer Scotland and believe our role extends beyond the walls of our practices, we want to support people in their communities, at a local level, and being Dementia Friends allows us to do this.”  

The dental group is committed to providing sector-leading care for NHS patients, as well as private patients. Currently the group provides services for over 600,000 patients, with the majority of patients being registered NHS patients.   

Clyde Munro operates across Scotland providing routine and specialist dental services for NHS and private patients. The group employs over 250 clinicians and 600 support staff and is committed to the recruitment and retention of talented dental professionals across the sector.  

Scottish Book Trust launches Reading is Caring appeal

Scottish Book Trust, the national charity changing lives with reading and writing, is launching an appeal during Dementia Awareness Week (29 May – 4 June) to support Reading is Caring – a programme which provides personalised training to help people support loved ones living with dementia through sensory, shared reading experiences.

A survey commissioned by Scottish Book Trust revealed that 80% of Scots worry about losing meaningful connections with loved ones through dementia, and 75% worry about how dementia might affect them.

Reading is Caring is designed to ease daily challenges by creating special moments of connection, sparking positive memories and relieving stress.

It is currently only available in the Scottish Borders, Edinburgh and the Lothians, and the charity is raising funds to reach more people in need of support.

A recent participant of the programme, caring for her mother who lives with dementia, said: ‘When we’re reading together, Mum is back in a world where she can read a book, remember, and enjoy. Like music, it’s a way of reconnecting her with who she is.’

Marc Lambert, CEO of Scottish Book Trust, added: ‘More and more people in Scotland are living with dementia or caring for someone with dementia. We have seen the huge difference Reading is Caring makes to the daily lives of those living with dementia and the person caring for them.

“We want to reach more people all over Scotland with our specialised support.’

To learn more about Reading is Caring, or to donate to the fundraising appeal, visit scottishbooktrust.com/donate/reading-is-caring.  

Dementia Awareness Week: Policy to be shaped by people living with dementia and unpaid carers

People living with dementia are being invited to join a new panel to help shape policy and delivery.  

The national, independent group will also be open to unpaid carers to be sure that Scottish Government is fully considering the impact of policy and funding decisions on those who experience them first hand.

Work will begin with the development of an application and assessment process, with the expectation that it would be established before the end of the year.

Speaking at the beginning of Dementia Awareness Week, Minister for Mental Wellbeing and Social Care, Kevin Stewart said: “The voice of experience is a crucial part of our policy making process, and making sure that it is factored in as early as possible in making important decisions is key to improving services across the country. Only someone living with dementia, their loved ones and carers fully know the complexities and nuances of dealing with it.

“We already have a very active lived experience voice in dementia support and this panel will help to amplify it. Dementia activists across the world us the motto ‘Nothing about us, without us’ and this group will put this into practise.”

Dementia Awareness Week takes place annually in Scotland on the first week of June.  This year’s event will run from Monday 30 May to Sunday 5 June and the aim of the week is to raise awareness of dementia and help improve the lives of people with dementia, their families and carers. This year’s theme is ‘Prevent, Care, Cure’ .

To apply to be part of the lived experience panel or for more information, contact dementiapolicy@gov.scot.

Beatson staff help spread the word on dementia

Dementia is a fact of life for thousands of Scots and their families – but what does it actually feel like to suffer from the disease?

 That’s what some staff at the Beatson West of Scotland Cancer Centre tried to discover, as part of Dementia Awareness Week.

The aim of Dementia Awareness week (3-9th June 2019) is to encourage people and organisations to help in raising awareness of the disease and the impact it has on people and those around them.

At the Beatson, staff have been doing their bit too.

Nicky Donnelly, Cancer Clinical Educator said: “ To mark Dementia Awareness Week myself and a colleague wore the Dementia simulation suits and went on a walk round of the building to engage with staff about how it felt to be wearing this resource.

The Dementia Simulation suit helps to simulate ageing and impairs the movement of those wearing it, simulating some of the typical difficulties that people experience in older age, showing you how tiring it is not to be able to move fully, stopping you being able to freely move your joints, making it difficult to feel and move your hands and fingers and grip things.

Nicky added: “It also has a back piece that gives you a curvature of the spine so you can’t stand up and googles that give you a yellowing vision to replicate loss of sight and peripheral vision, typically associated with cataracts, while ear plugs can impair your hearing and awareness of your surroundings.”

“Our experience of wearing the suit was quite revealing as you truly appreciate the cognitive changes that people with Dementia experience; it really highlights the impact on people with this condition that without the suit you wouldn’t be able to understand.

“The wider staff enjoyed the experience of seeing us in the suits they were very engaged in asking vital questions of the Care of the Older Person Nurse who has been instrumental in raising awareness of the issues people with Dementia face.”

North West Carers mark Dementia Awareness Week

It is Dementia Awareness Week. The staff and Volunteers at the North West Carers Centre have all completed the Dementia Friend Programme.

The Alzheimer’s Society’s Dementia Friends programme is the biggest ever initiative to change people’s perceptions of dementia. It aims to transform the way the nation thinks, acts and talks about the condition.

Whether you attend a face-to-face Information Session or watch the online video, Dementia Friends is about learning more about dementia and the small ways you can help. From telling friends about the Dementia Friends programme to visiting someone you know living with dementia, every action counts.

The Dementia Friends Inititiative has 6 reasons why we should all become a Dementia Friend. Today we will be thinking about Reason 1:

1. Learn about dementia and how it affects a person’s life What is it actually like to live with dementia? How does it affect someone’s life day-today? When you become a Dementia Friend, you’ll learn about the real-life impact of the condition and the small actions we can all take to help.

Protocol to assist in search for missing people with dementia

Police in Edinburgh with the Edinburgh Health and Social Care Partnership have launched a new protocol locally to help officers in searching for missing people with dementia. Continue reading Protocol to assist in search for missing people with dementia

Dementia Awareness week creates a splash!

abseilers

Edinburgh’s biggest ever Dementia Awareness week was brought back to earth with a bump with a charity abseil down the Forth Bridge yesterday. It was a dramatic end to a week organised to encourage people to talk about dementia in a bid to dispel myths and to help those who are affected.

A wide range of awareness-raising events were held at a range of venues all across the city last week. These included: Currie Rugby Club at Balerno Gala Day, St James Centre, Drumbrae Hub, Royal Infirmary Hospital, Queensferry Library, Morningside Library, Barnton Pharmacy, Liberton Hospital, Ocean Terminal Shopping Centre’s Living Memories Shop Unit, Cameron Toll Shopping Centre Currie Library CommunityRoom, The Mill at St Joseph’s Balerno and Portobello Farmers Market.

On Monday there was a Café and meeting place with information and advice for people with dementia and their carers from dementia advisors at Cramond Kirk Hall and Barnton & Cramond Dementia Friendly community forum held an information meeting on Tuesday.

Social media was also used to raise awareness. A blog, Let’s talk about Dementia (#AHPDementia), hosted different themes each day, with an opportunity for visitors to post questions to a range of experts including occupational therapists, speech and language therapists, physiotherapists and dieticians.

Dementia Week event organisers were also asked to use #dementia6littlethings on Twitter, and by liking and sharing messages posted on Facebook by the Council.

Reflecting on a busy week, a spoksesperson for Alzheimers Scotland said: “Phew! Seven days of celebration, awareness raising, conversation, fundraising and support. Thanks so much to everyone who has been a part of Dementia Awareness Week!

“Your stories, you kindness and enthusiasm have made for a fantastic week. Your passion has helped make Scotland a better place for people with dementia, their families and carers.”

thanks

So all in all it was a very successful week, but the work doesn’t stop there. The number of people who have the illness is set to double over the next 20 years, and  there’s an ongoing drive to make Edinburgh a dementia friendly city by a partnership of the city of Edinburgh Council, Alzheimer Scotland and NHS Lothian.

The group launched the “6 little things” campaign in February, which tells people how to cure the stigma of dementia by knowing six simple facts. 

Speaking before the lauch of dementia awareness week, Councillor Ricky Henderson, Health, Social Care and Housing Convener, said: “The awareness week is the ideal opportunity for us all to get involved in conversations about the illness. While it’s great that we’re living longer, this is leading to increasing numbers of people experiencing dementia. Let’s get conversations going with loved ones about dementia and together we can beat the stigma and also support those who have it.”

The conversations have started – now let’s keep talking!

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