An exploration of the UK unpaid carer's world


                               we  are all working to improve dementia care services                                         

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 Home page  here 

5 Feb 2017

Proof that DIY works, via the Ross Dementia Meeting Centre - Home page here 


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1.1  Rationale for the DIY approach is here

DMCs - the pitfalls and their minimisation  here

If one page is needed to put the project across, it is the FAQ page here   Skelly will help here.

There are two routes to a new DMC.  The formal, one-year long route or the DIY route.

Irrespective of which you decide, you can depend on my full support.  Alan F Harrison



                                               The Home page is split to give a better page balance



                          
                                        Home page

An initial ABC which includes:
  •  Research and best practice evidence about dementia care and support is not readily accessible and understandable. 

  • Skills to support people with dementia have not been a priority within professional training and education.

  • There is a need to listen to the opinions of people with dementia and carers who bring an expertise which no others can offer.

  • Your DIY DMC will have the same foundation as any other.  Your building takes less time to build and there are different views from the windows. 
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  1. Rationale for the DIY approach
  2. You need to be sure that there is sufficient local need for a DMC
  3. You need to find suitable premises
  4. You need some start-up money
  5. You need a small group to share the tasks
  6. The group formulates aims, initial operational plan
    1.5.4.1  
        At least one of you will need the                         knowledge of a Dementia Champion


                                  here





                     
                                   Home page

Background info with which the initial group ought to become  fluent.
  1. A DMC is an up-to-date version of a daycare centre 

  3. DMCs have been running in Holland with great success for twenty years

  5. Being faced with dementia has substantial consequences 

  7. Stigma - people are frightened of dementia 

  9. Stigma - lack of understanding that dementia is caused by a medical disorder

  11. Stigma -  fear of  'accelerated' nursing home admission increases public fear of dementia

  13. Services are often fragmented

  15. DMCs reduce behavioral problems
  17. One last item -  story.

                           






                                here


                                   Image censored

               Recommended . . text  

The aim is to provide the more- important text to aid understanding of the DIY DMC project.

                                           here
 
 

 



  Dementia Meeting Centres - synopsis   

  1. The huge difference between a daycare centre and a DMC

  3. There is a care-triangle of the caree, the carer and the DMC

  5. Carees are part and parcel of the "care-outwards" 

  7. Carers enjoy and benefit from sharing the caring

  9. A diagnosis of dementia can be frightening 

  11. Person-centred care is treating the person with dignity and respect 

  13. Reminiscence therapy is well-used within DMCs

  15. Volunteers participate in the DMC care process.
          here





FAQs  What is a Dementia Meeting Centre?                     And then, what is a DIY DMC? 

  1. What is a Dementia Meeting Centre?
  2. Why not use a daycare centre?
  3. What are the criteria for participation within your DIY DMC?
  4. What happens at a DIY DMC?
  5. What are the opening times of the DIY DMC?
  6. Do I have to attend every day and/or all day?
  7. Can I attend on my own?
  8. How much will it cost to attend?
  9. Will transport be available? 
  10. What do I need to do to attend the Meeting Centre?
  11. Who do I need to contact?
Your DIY DMC project contributes in a big way for your town to become a
dementia-friendly community - foot of page.



           here

 
                    Ways and means 

                More ways than means so far  

 As the scroll indicates, the page is about paperwork.

                                             here






            DMCs - the pitfalls and their 

                         minimisation  


  1. Motivation
  2. The pitfalls
  3. The UK project deserves better
2.3

The first DMC at Droitwich has a website which tells you What happens at the Meeting Centre but not what has happened or is happening now. No plans are discernible.  No optimism and that is based on needing to wait for project research outcomes in February 2107.


2.13


You can't sell the goods if you don't put them in the market place.  


2.15


It is not a matter of insufficient finance. "The total grant for the project is for €1,119,819 -  £964,056 - with the UK-based research being funded by the Economic and Social Research Council,  and the University of Worcester receiving €375,000  - £322,839  for its work over the next three years." from 2103.


                                here











      
          

             Dementia Friendly Communities

  1. Introduction
  2. DIY DMC justification
  3. A DFC story 
  4. A two-way process
  5. Exclusion
  6. Young people
  7. DIY DMC Advisory Board
                                     here  



                Herefordshire DFCs

This is a formula page if you are out of county. 

You have on your doorstep an example of the need to think big.   

                                here 



                                    
                                         Poetry
 
  1. The use of poetry
  2. On My Father's Dementia
  3. A Caregiver's Response
  4.  Those hands that once held mine
                                   here






                         Activities

     1      Activities

     1.1     Activities not requiring special                            equipment and materials 

      1.1.1  Singing.  We don't need to rely on instruments, song sheets, technology etc, and can enjoy benefiting from the unaccompanied human voice.  Song sheets used when singing the old favourites defeat attempts to remember.


       1.2    DIY-made equipment and materials

       1.2.1 The header graphic cheese is costly and prone to puncture.  In mid-pilot, Shed Talk the male carers can be consulted.  A 4ft plywood piece is used and several holes are cut.  Yogurt pots/Tupperware pots are inserted.  Score values are painted.  A demountable strut is added to hold it an angle.  Without it, it rests on the floor according to who is using it. 

                                 here


 
             Activities - purchases and DIY  
   
  1. These are on order from Amazon. 
  2. Test the products 
  3. Comment to be posted when they arrive.  Amazon is satisfactory re returns.
  4. Indicate how the products can be used
                              
                                         here
  
                                        
                                        
                                              DIY 

4.1     Female carees working together
 
  1. The Leominster DMC employs a woman to deal with participants' nails.  Massage is also available.

  3. Depending upon interest and capability within carers and volunteers, 4.1.1 need not be necessary. 

  5. There will be greater needs beyond knitting/sewing cloth mice.

  7. Knitting needles will be more popular among participants than acupuncture needles. 
                               here












  1. Focus  
  2. Meetings v  activities
  3. Use of the word host     
  4. Participants 
  5. The group permutations 
  6. Activities & meetings - the practicalities
  7. Host and Leader 

                                           here





                             TOSS AND TALK BALLS  

See numerous examples

        1   What did you collect as a child?
             What is your favourite sport?
      

See far more than the makers reveal.  - eg  1 above

See where they come from and prices.  

Read DIY ways of reducing the costs and making your results more effective

  e g         Buy balloons and cheaper balls and                                    customise them

You put your DIY hat on, decide to buy some balloons in town or order a pack  of 10 Punch Ball balloons. You produce lists of, say, fifteen questions, lunch options   etc.  
You then paint a ball with fifteen numbers.  

                                         here




    Volunteers  and daily routine 


  1. Opportunities - provisional  - for volunteers 
Volunteers participate in the DMC care process. They are a key part of the care  provision.  They learn the broad principles within and ethos of an international project to increase the numbers of DMCs.  

         2  Catering

We will eat together every day; £5 per head will be pooled towards a shared meal
       The shared meal can be made by all                    working as a team, 
                                   here 

           

                  

               Pics for DIY DMC publicity  

See plenty of pictures and images  . . .

which are also for learning more about DMCs . . . 

and which promote thought for more activities

                                           here



                    Promoting DIY DMCs 
               at Gloucester Memory Walk

     "But it's taken three years and > £300,000 
      just to get two centres up and running. ."


                                  here
         
                
            Do GPs understand dementia?  

 
  1. Does your GP care about carers? 

  3. There is often little acknowledgement or appreciation for the person doing the caring

  5. It's amazing what training can do

  7. You are told there is no support locally to help you manage

  9. A right to know about the information and advice available

  11. Conversations with GPs are not always  'seen through'

  13. More than a third of people with dementia in England live without a formal diagnosis

  15. It's a Postcode lottery

                                                 here






Making our health and care systems fit for an ageing population 


  1. Key messages
  2. Goal
  3. Where dementia is present, the degree of frailty usually corresponds to the degree of dementia
  4. Providing good care for people with dementia
  5. Key issues include
  6. Improving end-of-life care for people with dementia 
  7. A coordinated approach to end-of-life care

        There is considerable under-diagnosis of                     dementia compared with expected rates

        Dementia is a particularly important issue,                   affecting 800,000 people in the UK already,
        with this figure projected to double over the                  next 20 years
 

            here





  
                  
               Brain exercises     

    1.1  Can brain exercises help delay memory              loss or dementia?

      1.2  What kinds of brain exercises
             should I do?

       2    Brain basics

       3   Color Match challenges your 
            response inhibition

       4   Colour challenge

       5   Another challenge

                
            It will be interesting to learn how you                 have adapted these exercises to suit                   your caree.

            If carers within the DIY DMC perform                   such exercises, it is incumbent on                       facilitators to have carried out a risk                   assessment with specialist advice.   


                                here
 

 


                           

     Recycled songs Home page

         with emphasis on no need for a piano

These well-known songs give care-context lyrics to bring the house down within your DIY DMC.

When carers attend their support groups and other meetings, the songs boost the purpose of the meeting. Perhaps it's dealing with care bureaucracy. 

Joshua at the Battle of Red Tape Square
Red Tape Square, Red Tape Square
Joshua is a carer caught in Red Tape Square
And the forms came tumbling down

Carees and carers can sing and laugh at the bureaucrat who turns up to collect the forms!

Carers at your DIY DMC receive help with the paperwork as required.  



                                       here  




                             
                                     
                 Dementia facts


  1. Did you know?   Alzheimer's Disease is the most common form of dementia. 

  3. Types of dementia  

  5. Dementia By Day 

  7. Alzheimer's Disease Fact Sheet  

  9. The Dementia Umbrella  

  11. Dementia is not a disease in itself. Dementia is a word used to describe a group of symptoms that occur when brain cells stop working properly. 

  13. What happened to senile dementia?  

  15. What is Senility? 

  17. NHS Choices  

  19. According to the Alzheimer’s Society there are already more than 800,000 people with dementia in the UK and that number is set to double over the next 35 years. 


                             here 

                                       

              Under  starter's  orders

1  You have reached the Advisory Board - Phase 1

2  You have found premises - the Advisory Board              stage is still a dream

11.3   You need to wear the carer's moccasins.


6.2.5  First estimated equipment total  £3350

                                                            Feeds forward to > >

                                             here
               DIY DMC Business Plan

Page under construction - 
nothing more than a framework.
  1. Concept Description
  2. Opportunity
  3. Product/Service
  4. Value Proposition 
  5. Marketing Strategy
  6. Competitive Advantage
  7. Management
  8. Funding
                                            here

              
"People who really don’t care as opposed to just being busy with their life, show some kind of avoidance behavior. That’s a very clear sign that they really can’t be bothered with caring for you.

                                              here

 


pagetop       Navigation page   here

                      DIY DMC Home page  here