Some thoughts on meeting the needs of LGBTQ+ people in care by Phil Harper

We are delighted to have expert Phil Harper, Senior lecturer in Health and Care Management at Arden University, answer our questions for LGBTQ+ history awareness month. It is so important to remember that people in our care may well have experienced painful pasts, often hiding their sexuality for fear of discrimination both in their own families and from society as a whole. Many will have suffered verbal abuse and moments where they felt rejected by their local community, so it’s vital these life histories are understood and acknowledged. Hopefully this article will highlight some of the ways we can all begin to act and work more inclusively, avoiding subtle discriminations and creating a more welcoming environment for everyone.

Do we know how many LGBTQ+ people with dementia are currently receiving care in the UK?

Though we don’t know the actual figure, we can make a reliable estimate.

There are 1.2 million older gay and lesbian people in the U.K and if we apply this number to the fact that one in 14 people over the age of 65 may develop a form of dementia, then it can be estimated that there could be over 85,000 gay and lesbian people with dementia in the UK alone.

As 75% of people in care homes and 40% of people in hospital have dementia or memory problems, it can be assumed that many of those 85,000 LGBTQ+ people living with dementia will at some point need health and/or social care. Therefore, it is vital that care staff understand the needs of this demographic.

What are micro-aggressions?

Micro-aggressions have been defined as subtle, often not intentional, forms of discrimination (D.W.Sue 2010)

Examples of LGBTQ+ micro aggressions usually fall under these four main areas:

  • Terminology that discriminates against a LGBTQ+ person
  • Enforcing heterosexual norms
  • Disregarding people’s individual experiences
  • Not accepting that a LGBTQ+ person has specific needs. (see Nadal et al 2010)

 

How important is it to use correct terminology and language?

The positive use of language is essential in enabling an LGBTQ+ person to feel validated

Here are some examples:

Using the correct pronouns

In the case of a person who is transgender, misgendering an individual can often cause a person to feel isolated and not accepted. Using an individual’s pronouns can lead to the feeling of inclusion especially for a person with dementia who can present with differing levels of confusion.

 

Negative impact of labelling

According to Kitwood (1997) healthcare professionals often unintentionally cause harm through overlooking a person’s social needs, this concept is known as Malignant Social Psychology (MSP). Labelling a person is an example of MSP.

Sexuality is incredibly complicated, therefore, we like to put people into boxes and assign labels. This does not allow for the individuality of sexuality, for example, not every heterosexual person finds the same person attractive.

Kitwood famously said: ‘When you’ve met one person with dementia, you’ve met one person with dementia’. Therefore, we must not enforce our norms onto a LGBTQ+ individual living with dementia and make assumptions about their needs.

 

What does heteronormativity mean and why is it an issue in care?

LGBTQ+ individuals often try and conform to heterosexual norms and ideals due to societies championing of heterosexuality. This is known as heteronormativity.

Here are some examples that often occur in care:

  • Asking a new resident or patient if they have a wife or husband rather than partner
  • Decorating a care home (or ward) with heteronormative imagery e.g. only having posters with heterosexual couples on, or displaying artwork showing happy heterosexual relationships only.
  • Theming activities around heterosexual love

These occurrences of heteronormativity can have a particularly negative impact on a person living with dementia and may cause a person to ‘go back into the closet’, often due to a person feeling invalidated and fearing negative perceptions.

Heteronormativity can cause people to self-regulate their behaviours. This may be more evident in a person living with dementia due to it being common for an individual to resort to earlier memories and experiences, therefore, a person may revert to a time where being LGBTQ+ was illegal or less accepted in society.

The inclusion of LGBTQ+ affirming imagery and having welcoming conversations with health and social care staff is important in order to communicate to a LGBTQ+ person that they are valid and accepted in society and can continue to express their gender and/ or sexuality.

Why do older LGBTQ+ people so often fear healthcare?

There are many reasons for this fear, fundamentally it is caused by a lack of understanding of an LGBTQ+ person’s needs by health and social care professionals.

This lack of understanding can mean professionals:

  • Overlook the importance of non-heteronormative partners
  • Overlook a single person’s ‘family of choice’ formed of close friends.
  • Dismiss the potential conflicts between these families of choice and biological families – particularly when a person lacks capacity and professionals are making best interest decisions.

Partners and family members are experts in that person and are essential in providing individualised care but some biological families struggle to accept a LGBTQ+ persons sexuality or gender. Health and social care professionals should be encouraged to identify the conflicts between some families and the wishes of a LGBTQ+ person.

How might the environment and activities be adapted for LGBTQ+ people?

Reminiscence is an example of an area that needs to be culturally sensitive. Avoid the use of Memory lanes in corridors which may force mobile residents to re-live painful memories. Alternatively, reminiscence corners or boxes might be more appropriate and will not force reminiscence that is not individualised for residents. Activity providers should be aware of potential triggers before embarking on any reminiscence type activities like life story work.

Themed activities need to be fully inclusive and embrace art, literature and music that celebrates LGBTQ+ people and their relationships.

What are your hopes for the future in care?

We have moved forward in society and have become more tolerant of LGBTQ+ people; however, we need to do more, we need to move towards inclusion. Subtle and often unintentional forms of discrimination such as the micro aggressions discussed, need to be eradicated to achieve this. Safe healthcare environments need to be created. This can often be achieved through improved equality and diversity training and improved multidisciplinary working where LGBTQ+ support services and healthcare professionals work together.

Many thanks to Phil Harper for taking the time to share their thoughts with us.

Please see below for information about Arden University’s new Health and Care Chartered Management Degree Apprenticeship. A fast track to a BSc (Hons) degree in 2.5 years with a relevant level 5 qualification.

 

Health and Care Management Degree Apprenticeship Opportunity

Here at Arden University, we have developed a new Health and Care Management Chartered Management Degree Apprenticeship. This has been developed with social care in mind, a fast track option means anyone with a relevant level 5 qualification and appropriate management experience can complete the programme in only 2.5 years.

This accredited degree apprenticeship programme provides a professional pathway for management and leadership development. Participants will learn cutting edge knowledge and theory through the BSc (Hons) Health and Care Management degree modules, whilst developing and demonstrating new skills and behaviours in the workplace.

In addition to the Arden University honours degree, the Chartered Manager Degree Apprenticeship programme provides successful completers with the prestigious NHS Leadership Academy Mary Seacole Award and full Chartered Manager accreditation upon completion, ensuring all candidates gain the management skills and recognition they need to enhance their career.

If you would like more information, please follow the following link:

https://arden.ac.uk/our-courses/degreeapprenticeships/bsc-health-and-care-management-apprenticeship-cmi

or email the Programme Lead Phil Harper:

pharper@arden.ac.uk

 

Phil Harper

(They/Them)

Senior Lecturer in Health and Care Management

Programme Lead- Chartered Manager Degree Apprenticeship (CDMA) and Fast Track CMDA

Research Interest: LGBTQ healthcare, Ageing and Dementia Care.

Email: pharper@arden.ac.uk
arden.ac.uk

Arden University
Arden House, Middlemarch Park, Coventry, CV3 4FJ
Registered in England No: 2450180 | Vat No: 7053350 66

 

Designing Clothes with Dementia in Mind

Innovations to improve quality of life 

As a social enterprise, Mycarematters actively supports small companies and organisations whose mission is to improve quality of life for anyone with long term health issues and their care giver/partner. Sara Smith neé Harris’s own experience of caring for a loved one with dementia led her to create her own clothing range designed to overcome many of the difficulties she had encountered when assisting with dressing and struggling to find stylish but practical alternatives.

The Story of Roaringly Precious

Roaringly Precious is an inclusive clothing company, specifically designing clothing for people living with cognitive and mobility challenges. The company was born when Sara, designer and founder, spent time caring for loved ones facing the challenges of dementia. She became frustrated with the lack of fashionable, easy to wear clothing available to help people maintain their sense of style and independence whilst providing for their specific needs. She decided to use her degree in textiles and costume design to do something about it.

All the Roaringly Precious garments have subtly built-in adaptations to make dressing easier. They use specific sizing rules, with loose fit styles that still fit and flatter the body. Some examples of their adaptations are larger openings without low necklines, easy fastenings and garments that are made to be worn either way so they never look back to front. These changes improve the dressing experience and promote independence and dignity.

‘We believe every person deserves the right to feel good about themselves and the clothes they are wearing.’

They consciously offer a smaller selection of styles but in a wide range of fabric choices so the clothing remains familiar to wear, whilst allowing people choice to express their taste and colourway preferences. They are a person-centred brand, interested in only providing purposeful products that will improve quality of life.

‘We work to support peoples’ abilities and skills, empowering and enabling them so their opinions are heard, their feelings are known, and their style and individuality is seen. We endeavour to provide inclusive clothing that solves issues, eases struggle, and provides people with a sense of comfort and enjoyment.’  Sara Harris

If you’d like to visit Roaringly Precious to see their latest clothing range please click here. And if you’d like to place an order, use Code MCM5 to claim your 5% discount.

Taking a Fresh Look at your Outside Space

Debbie Carroll and Mark Rendell are therapeutic garden designers who encourage care settings to take a fresh look at their care practices in order to engage actively and meaningfully with their outside spaces.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A few years ago they under-took an extensive research project to understand why care setting gardens were not used more actively, even when designed to the latest guidance, and particularly for dementia care settings.

This project took them on an extraordinary, and at times challenging, journey into understanding that the role of an organisation’s practices, attitudes and beliefs, its ‘care culture’, were key to understanding the level of engagement that residents had with their outside spaces.

Step Change Design Ltd was formed to uniquely support both the Care and Design sectors by sharing these findings.

‘Why Don’t We Go Into the Garden’ Map & Handbook  (including free infographic poster)

This in-depth diagnostic programme offers care settings a practical way of understanding what is hindering engagement to outdoor spaces, and guides them to see what physical and cultural changes are needed to ensure a new garden design will support meaningful daily access.

The map visually shows how to plan a route forward to a more relationship-centred way of working where the garden is more of an extension to a home/care setting all year round. This ‘tool’ will also support garden designers to create a more dementia friendly garden in relation to current care practices.

Purchase the ‘Why Don’t We Go Into the Garden’ Map, handbook & infographic here

The ‘Why Don’t We Go Into the Garden’  A3 lnfographic poster is also available separately. It summarises some of the key findings of the research with insights and tips on how to make the most of time spent outdoors. The statistics come directly from their large­ scale research project carried out with support from NAPA and other care sector agencies.

Purchase the infographic poster here

The Research

“We amassed a lot of data during our large-scale research project back in 2013. With NAPA’s valued support, we recruited 17 care settings across England and Wales. with the majority of residents living with dementia, into our study to find out the answer to a pressing question we had: 

Why aren’t care home gardens being used more actively?

“Our findings identified the central role that care culture played in influencing how well gardens were being used. We discovered that the more progressive the care culture was (i.e. person-­centred or relationship-centred) the higher were the levels of engagement with the garden, regardless of whether it was designed. We also found that fearful attitudes towards Health and Safety effectively ‘capped ‘ engagement levels with the garden. This slowly evolved into our now familiar Care Culture Map and Handbook. 

“What we hadn’t done until recently was to do a deeper analysis of the quantitative data (i.e. the numbers, quantities and amounts of activities and happenings in the study). 

“Ten findings from this analysis activity stood out as being simple and achievable alterations to day to day care practices that would make a huge difference in engaging residents actively and meaningfully with their gardens. We were mindful that our work with care settings is primarily about encouraging behaviour change and so we felt sharing these findings would be best done via a colourful infographic poster.

“The infographic style also enabled us to distil the information into a series of simple but clear statements that can encourage someone to pause and reflect on what they do. The poster format works well as it is something that people can gather around (just like our Care Culture Map) and it can be displayed publicly for all to see. 

“The poster can also help care settings compare their attitudes and practices towards the outdoors with other settings. For example, the average length of time spent outdoors per visit from our study was 41 minutes. In some cases, and in good weather, this was well over an hour. 

“Even in the rain, almost 4 in 10 residents in our study spent time outside, if they wished. So the poster is also a subtle means to interrupt deeply held beliefs and attitudes about going outside and is a useful tool to aid reappraisal of an important and often neglected part of the overall care environment at the care setting. And for those homes that actively engage with the outdoors with their residents, the poster is a great way to display to everyone the positive value that is already placed on this important and health-enhancing space. 

“We hope that the poster will be displayed prominently on notice boards so that residents, families, staff and managers can feel inspired by these tips and insights to enable fresh ideas about stepping outside or extending a visit to the garden. Above all, the poster articulates how simple changes to habits and routines, like taking a meal outside, or placing a bench along a path, can all help to create meaningful time spent outdoors for everyone at the care setting. 

For more information about the work of Step Change Design please email Mark or Debbie at info@stepchange-design.co.uk

This article on the creation of the infographic was originally published in NAPA Living Life Magazine Autumn 2019.

Free to print out and share: our Garden Wordsearch

 

 

Should a care home choose Mycarematters Care Charts or Profiles?

Care Charts v Mycarematters

For those care homes looking to improve their person-centred care there are now two tools to help which appear, at first glance, to be doing the same thing: providing a quick at-a-glance view of a person’s needs and preferences in their room. Both systems ensure that all members of staff and visiting professionals interacting with a resident are quickly aware of the small things that can make a big difference. Both have won awards for the simple and effective way in which they assist delivery of person-centred care.

Where they differ is in how the information is collected and shared. The Care Charts have a laminated surface on which information can be written, wiped off and updated whenever required. Mycarematters profiles are created / updated online and printed out.

There are pros and cons for both systems, but the one significant advantage of Mycarematters Profiles is that they can easily be shared with other services. The simplest way is to supply a printout, but it is also quick and easy for anyone with the person’s name, date of birth and Mycarematters code to retrieve a person’s profile from online. So when a hospital phones to ask for information about one of your residents because the printout has gone missing, you can just provide the resident’s Mycarematters code and point hospital staff in the direction of the online facility.

There are other benefits offered by Mycarematters Profiles. There is space to add information about Advance Care Plans, DNARs, Power of Attorney for each resident and more, providing a central record of information that is quick and convenient to access when needed. You will be able to give family members access to their relative’s profile so they can view and contribute to the information held.

People like to work in different ways so what works best for one environment is not necessarily the best for another. It may be appropriate to use both: hang a laminated chart in your residents’ bedrooms for updating by hand, and create online profiles that can go with a resident in the event they need a stay in hospital.

Whichever method you choose, you’ll be helping your staff and others to better meet a person’s needs when they are unable to express those things for themselves: enabling everyone interacting with them to engage in meaningful conversation, to know their likes and dislikes, to make an emotional connection. It’s the least they deserve.

Contact us to chat through the options and special offers available.

Please Tell Me… a new Life Story book

We are often told that nothing can beat our Care Charts for getting information in front of everyone interacting with a person, but that’s not to say the learning should stop there. Our charts provide a snap-shot, at-a-glance view of a person’s needs and preferences, but should not be thought of as a replacement for life story work.
Regardless of whether it is family or staff members who spend time with a person to collect their memories and what matters to them now, the process can be extremely rewarding for both parties. And that information can of course help carers provide personalised and appropriate care, either in someone’s home or in a care home.
So we were very excited to see John’s Campaign new book Please Tell Me… a place to help someone share a childhood memory, the words of a favourite song, what made them happy in their early years. It is designed to follow the chronology of the person’s life, and the open questions provide opportunities for conversations.

Available as single books or in packs of 10. Click here to purchase…

 

Care Homes can now join John’s Campaign

Why should care homes join John’s Campaign?

by Julia Jones, co-founder of John’s Campaign

It’s a perfectly reasonable question – John’s Campaign started as a campaign for carer access to people with dementia in the acute hospital sector. My friend Nicci Gerrard’s father, Dr John Gerrard, had been living well with Alzheimer’s for almost ten years when he was admitted to hospital to have treatment for his leg ulcers. It was a hospital with old-fashioned restricted visiting hours, which were further curtailed by a noro-virus outbreak elsewhere in the hospital and a knee-jerk “no visitors” restriction.  He went in, “strong, mobile, smiling, able to tell stories about his past, to work in his garden and help with things round the house”. No one realised how his family support had helped him maintain these abilities. So no-one challenged the visiting restriction. No-one in the hospital though it odd that Dr Gerrard was simply lying in bed, passive, bewildered, almost certainly in a dangerous state of hypo-delirium because no-one in the hospital knew that he wasn’t always like that. They didn’t realise he could have been enjoying poetry or a game of chess. There were no rehabilitation beds available so they decided to keep him in hospital for longer.

Five weeks later Nicci and her family got their father home: “skeletal, incontinent, immobile, incoherent.”  He barely knew those around him and required 24 hour care for the rest of his life.  “Would we have left one of our children un-visited in hospital for 5 weeks?” Nicci and I asked one another. And so, after Dr Gerrard’s death in November 2014, John’s Campaign was born, insisting that the family carers of people with dementia should be welcome in hospital at any time.  Not just allowed but welcomed, 24/7 if necessary. Family carers (whether or not they are actually “family”) have a wealth of knowledge to share on behalf of the person who is no longer able to communicate reliably for him or herself. They are an essential part of that person’s team.

Superficially the situation in residential care feels quite different. Very often someone is moving into a home because they can no longer manage in the community, even with the help of their family. Family may be exhausted, despairing, guilt-wracked. Perhaps it seems kind to wave them away “Don’t worry, we’ll take it from here. You go home and take a break. We’ll let you know how s/he gets on.”

Alternatively you could think that families and friends are needed more than ever – but they are needed differently. They are needed to share information about the new resident, they are needed to maintain his or her sense of self-worth, to reassure them that they are still loved, they have not been abandoned. They are needed to bring “familiarity” to these strange surroundings. And, ideally, the shared responsibility with the care home can offer family members a chance to rediscover quality in a relationship that may have been damaged by illness, stress and tiredness.

I can imagine a care home manager sighing with exasperation at this point. “All this is true but we can’t MAKE the families come. There’s nothing stopping them but they just don’t bother!”

That’s a very good reason to join John’s Campaign.  Be part of a national movement,  put a certificate in the hall, write a letter to your families, and tell them that you’ve done this thing because they matter, you need them, their relative needs them, they need to stay part of the team. Families are the “third force” in residential care.

You can only join John’s Campaign if you know you welcome families at any time (with all sensible security arrangements, obviously). Then pledge your welcome in 50 words or less either by using the John’s Campaign pledge page or by emailing julia-jones@talk21.com .  You’ll be added to the Observer newspaper national list and to the interactive map on our website www.johnscampaign.org.uk

 

Sport: have we forgotten it?

Sporting Memories

by Emma Harris

We’ve all experienced that feeling when our muscles remember how to do something we thought our minds had forgotten, perhaps riding a bike or swinging a tennis racket. We may assume that an individual with dementia soon loses access to these memories along with names, places or facts, but our motor memories (or muscle memories) are actually amongst the last parts of our brains to be affected by dementia. This means that an individual may still be able to recall movements stored long ago in their muscle memories. Lisa Krieger of Mercury News tells the story of Jim Byerlee, an 84-year-old living with dementia, who was taken to play golf by his care home staff. Jim was able to swing a golf club with all the accomplishment of a retired athlete.

The Sporting Memories Foundation
Intergenerational reminiscence with The Sporting Memories Foundation

Like Jim, everyone has been touched by sport in some way, whether playing it, watching it, on TV or attending live events. As Tony Jameson-Allen, co-founder and director of The Sporting Memories Foundation, says ‘You don’t have a choice, everyone has memories of sport’. Sporting Memories advocate the importance of sport, not only to keep older people active, but as a way to encourage positive emotions and a sense of community through reminiscence. They work with care homes, libraries and other communities to organise groups sessions at which older people can discuss their own experiences of sport. Sporting Memories provides resources and training to staff to help them trigger memories and draw on the positive emotional impact sport can have. As Jameson-Allen explains, ‘one of the best ways to spark memories is other people’s memories’; they focus on the strengths of people with dementia: their long-term memories.

Sporting Memories discovered that talking about sport motivated participants to be active, and now organises reminiscence sessions followed by physical activities, including walking, football and curling. Joyce, a 96-year-old erstwhile ice dancer, is one such motivated person. She was taken to an ice rink by a member of her care home staff and, by using an adaptive frame, was able to experience all the sensations of being on the ice again.

Physical movement can play a vital role in improving the quality of life of an individual with dementia. It encourages physical and mental stimulation, can prevent depression and assists with sleep. Many organisations have discovered the power of active care and the numerous ways it can be tailored for all ages and abilities.

Table tennis for dementia
The BAT Foundation offers a ‘drug-free’ therapy for Alzheimer’s Disease.

The Bat Foundation describes exercise, or more specifically table tennis, as a ‘drug free Alzheimer’s therapy’. As part of their research, a team of neurologists took MRI scans to compare the brains of people with dementia who play table tennis and those who don’t. The scans revealed that certain parts of the brain light up dramatically in those who had just played table tennis; the concentration and co-ordination required to play the game stimulates the hippocampus and can delay cognitive decline. As a result, they have designed a table tennis table specifically for people with dementia, using colour contrasts to aid sight and side panels to assist with play. Annie Ingram, a voracious player, comments, ‘I can do this, I’m loving it!’.

Another sport which appeals to all ages is swimming and is known to have a positive impact on people with dementia, particularly because water offers a feeling of being weightless, thereby relaxing the body. But a public pool may be a daunting environment for someone with dementia and their carer. The Dementia Friendly Swimming Project aims to make swimming pools a safe and welcoming environment for people with dementia. They work across the UK, creating a network of dementia-friendly pools by producing guidance and offering training to swimming staff to achieve this aim.

Dance, on the other hand, is an activity which can be brought directly into the care home. Alive!, based in Bristol, offer dance and movement sessions which focus on the potential this activity has to help older people express themselves when they are no longer able to fully communicate their feelings; it’s about using dance to interact with individuals through rhythm and music. Alive! also offer training programmes to staff to help them bring active care into their own care homes, and run ‘Active Care Forums’ across the South of England for anyone working with older people. Becoming a member of a forum is a great way to pool new ideas and share experiences, whilst also gaining access to training, support and resources on active care.

JABADAO is a somewhat more unusual organisation. SPAGOG, Seriously Playful Armchair Games for the Old and Gorgeous, is a league event which uses basic movements and games with the simple aim of making life better. This is how it works: JABADAO teach the games to carers to play with their residents, the carers return the scores to the organisation, and results are published online weekly so care homes, friends & family can see which team is leading. Two finalist teams play against each other for the famous SPAGOG cup. JABADAO specialise in creating activities for people in late stages of dementia, and offer training for carers to improve the non-verbal communications of these individuals. Contact JABADAO if you’d like organise a competition in your area.

All of the above organisations, and more – see links below – offer the opportunity not only to maintain or increase physical fitness, but to become part of a community and interact with others through a medium other than speech. As Tony Jameson-Allen says, ‘it’s about friendship and keeping people supported just as much as it is about sport itself’. When words are a struggle, it can be the things which do not require any words at all that can offer us the most support.

Resources:

The Bat Foundation
Deliver specialised table tennis Alzheimer’s therapy programme

Dementia-Friendly Swimming
Organisation working to make swimming pools across the UK welcoming for people with dementia

The Sporting Memories Foundation
Work with communities to organise group sessions to discuss sport

Dance and Dementia
Offer dance sessions to individuals or groups

Alzheimer’s Society: Exercise in the early to middle stages
Advice from the Alzheimer’s Society on exercise for those in early to middle stages of dementia

Alzheimer’s Society: Exercise in the later stages
Advice for those in later stages of dementia

Association for Dance Movement Pschotherapy UK
Resource to find dance movement therapist for individual or groups

The Transformative Power of Art

Beach Huts

by Emma Harris

For the average person, being given the opportunity to create and express themselves might inspire a sense of freedom and productivity; it might also be something we take for granted. For a person struggling with dementia, perhaps with weakening senses or an inclination to recede into themselves, the power of art and creativity can be transformative to their quality of life.

Worldwide, people are beginning to understand the importance of creativity for those with dementia. In 2015, the Alzheimer’s Society produced a guide to encourage arts venues to become more dementia-friendly, offering extensive advice on how to do so. Sir Peter Bazalgette, Chair of Arts Council England, says “There are 850,000 people in the UK living with dementia and, for many of them, the arts will be fundamental to enabling them to live well with their condition”.

James, Creative Minds
James, founder of Creative Minds, leading an art session.

James Cropper is someone who has grabbed this idea by the horns. James was caring for an older adult with learning disabilities when he discovered the power of arts and crafts.

“He just came alive,” says James after observing this individual’s love to create.

Inspired by how stimulating and energising art could be, Creative Minds was soon formed. Now, James and his community of experienced artists enhance the lives of thousands of people in care homes, placing emphasis on experimentation and allowing them the time and materials to create their own pieces of art work. And the benefit is not just emotional; as well as boosting self-esteem, James explains how creativity increases cognitive stimulation, improves dexterity and motor skills, and reduces stress and anxiety. Family members of residents have been impressed with the art sessions and notice a profound impact on the residents. Jane, a resident’s daughter, comments, “I believe these sessions provide far more to the individual than just an afternoon of fun”.

Creative Minds continue to develop their art sessions and have started encouraging the interaction of multiple generations by inviting primary school children to join in with art sessions at care homes. They aim to make art accessible to people of all ages and abilities, bringing their sessions to more and more locations.

Engage & Create, founded by Rachel Mortimer, uses art in a slightly different way. Using an iPad to display famous pieces of art, they facilitate discussions of art in care homes and encourage conversation amongst people with dementia. Rachel says that it is fascinating how people with dementia notice things in art that she has not seen before. Like James, she has observed first-hand how interaction with art can draw people out from their shells and improve well-being, not just during the discussions, but well beyond them.

In 2007, The MoMA (Museum of Modern Art, New York) set up an initiative to make art more accessible to people with Alzheimer’s, expanding their education programmes to assist health and art professionals in making art accessible to them. Today, they continue to encourage people living with dementia interaction with art through programmes (see link below).  Whilst a trip to New York to participate in one of MoMA’s dementia programmes may be a little tricky, Engage & Create bring discussions directly to the care home.

And they don’t stop there; Rachel’s ‘Ignite Programme’ offers a tailored training package to care home staff so that they themselves can lead discussions about art work, supported along the way by the Engage & Create team. An occupational therapist told the team, “that was one of the best training sessions I’ve ever had … it’ll change the way I work with people with a diagnosis of dementia forever.”

If you want still more proof of the power of art, take a look at this recent study on dementia and creativity, ‘Dementia and Imagination’. The project was studying how visual arts can impact people with dementia. As the research only ended in December 2016, full findings are yet to be published but the initial reactions are undeniably positive. Participants commented on the soothing environment and the sense of achievement they felt; findings also indicated that family members and carers were affected positively as the art sessions allowed them to get to know the residents better through their creations.

All of these ventures focus on what people living with dementia can do rather than what they can’t do. In turn, the people living with the condition learn to focus on these things as well, nurturing an environment of positivity, colour and creativity which has the power to significantly improve their well-being.

If you are aware of an organisation that should be included in our list of resources, please email the details to info@mycarematters.org.

Resources:

Creative Minds Offer practical art sessions across England

Engage & Create Offer art discussion sessions and training packages for staff, including The Engage & Create Ignite Programme

Creative Buddy is a social enterprise that provides mobile arts and crafts sessions for care/residential homes, day centres and community venues in Sussex.

Dementia and Imagination A recently completed scientific study on the benefit of art for individuals with dementia

Arts4Dementia  develops arts programmes to empower, re-energise and inspire people with early-stage dementia and carers through challenging artistic stimulation, to help them live better for longer in their own homes.

Equal Arts Offer training sessions for care staff and run projects encouraging creativity amongst people living with dementia

MoMA Information on how to make art accessible to people with dementia.

Alzheimer’s Society Dementia Friendly Arts report A guide for arts venues on how to become dementia-friendly

 

 

 

 

Two award-winning products… one fabulous offer

TNV Reminiscence 1950s

We are delighted to be partnering with Many Happy Returns to create the Twist-N-View Happy Memories Set for care homes and hospitals. We have adapted our Twist-N-View Display Care Chart so as to display and store a number of the award-winning Chatterbox Cards, and are now offering 6 Care Charts and a pack of 26 Chatterbox cards for just £77.60.

Not only does the Twist-N-View Happy Memories Set facilitate person-centred care by ensuring all those interacting with an individual are aware of their needs and preferences, but also provides the tools to encourage conversations and facilitate reminiscence sessions.

See more by clicking here..

 

Mycarematters Display Options Now Available

Mycarematters Tablet and Chart

There’s now an alternative way to collect and share a person’s needs and preferences, using a simple online tool. Mycarematters has primarily been designed to ensure that a person’s needs and preferences are available without delay in the event they are admitted to hospital.

But the information needn’t languish unseen until that point. It can be used in a person’s home or in a care home to help paid carers develop a relationship with the person they are caring for. A person’s Mycarematters record can be viewed on a tablet or printed out and displayed in a number of ways to suit different environments.

We offer a selection of display options: click here to see the current range, or contact us by phone on 01403 210485 or by email so we can offer some suggestions on the best way to use Mycarematters in order to meet your needs.