Five Bullet Friday (15 November 2018)

This week I have been following up on the connections we made at the councils Big Huddle where Kainde, Kevin and I presented. We are looking forward to developing OCN connections and partnerships even further with Stirling Council staff. Connecting the opinion and input of people living with dementia with decision makers and influencing strategic approaches to be more accessible and dementia friendly is an important focus for us. This is why it was important for us to present OCN at The Big Huddle. Focusing on the huddle also helped us develop an updated power point presentation which highlighted a little bit of the work we have been doing. There was much much more we could have said but the time was limited. I have attached our presentation for anyone who is interested in having a look.

On Monday Alastair Cox (OCN Digital Lead) and I supported Robyn and Elisabeth from the life changes trust with a research focus group funded by the William Grant Foundation. We were joined by 5 people with dementia and 6 carers. The focus groups discussed different types of assistive technology and people’s experience of using it or not.

In addition to the valuable insight and feedback during the focus group it was a great opportunity for Alastair and me to spend some time with all the lovely people who joined us and get to know them a bit better. The group was split into 2 groups of carers and cared for and Alastair and I had over an hour with people cared for while carers were in the focus group, then an informal time with everyone together over lunch. The groups then swapped over and we had more time with some of the carers. People who attended also got to know each other and share their experiences and ideas about things they have found helpful. Alastair also had the opportunity to speak to carers who dropped in to speak to him specifically about digital technology’s they were interested in finding out more about. Following on from this focus group Alastair will be organising some Our Connected Neighbourhood digital focus groups which everyone who attended, and those who couldn’t make it, will be invited to. If you, or anyone you know, has any suggestions, feedback, experience or questions about assistive technology they have used to maintain a safe independent life living with dementia please get in touch.

We would also like to give A BIG THANK YOU to everyone who took part.

Following on from the assistive technology focus group on Monday Elizabeth and Robyn from Life Changes Trust have passed on links to 2 helpful assistive tech resources. Whilst we don’t recommend any specific product or website people have said these are helpful. We encourage everyone to do their research and take the usual security precautions with any on line purchases.

Dementia Circle: https://www.dementiacircle.org/

Dementia Circle provide user reviews of specific products that are helpful for making purchase decisions. The website appears to be not working as I write this but do check back as they may get it fixed.

The website ATdementia is a similar resource: https://www.atdementia.org.uk/

It doesn’t have the same review process but has a wider selection and items can be physically purchased from there.

Normal online market places like Amazon.co.uk may also good to check for price comparisons and the local council may offer certain products but this is council specific.

Continuing on from our successful Sainsbury’s environment audit we did another environmental audit at Alan Lodge care home in Bridge of Allan. 5 volunteers and two staff worked mainly one to one with around 7 residents. The home is due to move. We will feed back the outcomes to the home (with permission from residents) and are considering a second audit once Allan Lodge have had time to settle in to their new home in the Stirling Care Village. It might be interesting to compare the two before and after move audits. The interesting thing we are finding about care homes is that often people have moved from the neighbourhood they are familiar with. So when we talk about neighbourhoods people often reflect on the lives they have lived, the work they did and other experiences prior to moving. This gives us really good information we can feed back (with permission) to the care home staff. But also tells us a bit about how people are perceiving what ‘their’ neighbourhood is to them. It might not be fixed to a place. Place might be more about activity, experiences and other memories.

For our volunteers William Simpson care home in Plean have agreed to host a PST workshop on afternoon of Thursday 29th. Martin is looking for a couple more volunteer community researchers to be involved with this. I have attached the poster we use to promote in care homes so people can see the design we use and volunteers have the information. Please contact Martin Quirke (copying me in) to be involved.

Wednesday 21st November, 10am – 12 Noon (followed by lunch)

Venue TBC.

We will work on developing the questions for the planned focus group and strand leader interviews element of the evaluation. All volunteer community researchers are welcome. Please register your attendance with Kainde who needs final numbers by tomorrow.