1 Towards your DIY Dementia Meeting Centre
- It is presumed that the reader has read the Dementia Meeting Centres synopsis - here. The MeetingDem process is far too long and involved for DMCs to grow at a reasonable pace. Accepting that they all need proper constitution, there is another way of going about new DMCs. Two UK DMCs are the outcome of a three-year international project - IP - to improve dementia care. Its way of operating involves many formal meetings. The process for a new UK DMC can take more than a year. The IP UK arm reports its findings in February 2017. It is logical that present funding bodies will not fund anything else until at soonest, March. Which means that any new project will depend on other resources. The ultimate rationale is to demonstrate that your pilot project is worthwhile to the participants couched in their terms.
- Because the IP project is bound by convention, potential stakeholders are told what is hoped to happen. You start under your own steam and as you gain momentum, interest will grow. You will inform potential stakeholders what has happened, what is happening, and what will happen. These all add up to innovation within an innovation You are 60% down the trail because you have found premises and an operational team of dedicated, enthusiasts with the shared purpose of providing improvements in local dementia services within a much shorter time than the IP. source 1.1 after editing which includes new text
- The DIY concept has two main meanings. You are not following the conventional route of public meetings, Initial Meeting, Advisory Body and so on. As there is no mail-order route, DIY is the only answer. Instead of buying beautiful but expensive equipment, where possible, you are making it. Instead of following set routines, you are creating new routines to suit your participants. Instead of using the future tense for action, yours is achievement and not aims. All cast in the present tense. When you are ready for the conventional route, you talk in the present and past tenses. You do not ask cap in hand, it full of aims. You make your case, it being full of doing this, done that, will do something else. The ultimate rationale is to demonstrate that your pilot project
will beis worthwhile to the participants couched in their terms.
2 Suggestions relating to how your DIY Dementia Meeting Centre might work
- Nothing is cast in concrete. There are no DIY DMCs to observe. 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. 1 H here
- These pages take you from start to up-and-running. They are full of suggestions.
- There is a care-triangle of the caree, the carer and the normal DMC as a cohesive and innovative way of dealing with the growing numbers of dementia sufferers. Participation in the DMC care provision and process is the key characteristic of the DMC. The DMC focuses the "care inwards" on carees and carers who soon learn how to focus their "care outwards". 3 here
- The prime participant in the care provision and process is the carer. Your DIY DMC can focus on the way the carer and care facilitators, at first - volunteers, work together.
- So far, carers and carees generally interact within the group sessions and the social space between. Sometimes, they divide for the purpose of the facilitators gaining feedback for planning.
- However, some carees may be able to join the carers. Some are able to live their lives independently and cope without a carer. 8.5 here
- Taking this a stage further, either of those can warrant involvement in session delivery. The independent caree who one week is the castaway in Desert Island Discs, can be the presenter the following week. Any carer can do likewise. Small-group work can benefit from volunteers being assisted by carers and this category of carees. Harness caree and carer personal interests and skills. If, say, mouth-blown instruments or judo are on the list, ensure full risk assessment is carried out.
- Aim at maximising personal capability. Ditto group cohesion. Aim at wide ownership.
3 Needles and nails
- The more widely understood aspects of DIY are exploited by your DIY DMC. 2.15 is the driving force.
- 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. more at 1.2 here