Using technology is something we can often take for granted in our day-to-day lives, but for people living with dementia it can be a valuable source of engagement and stimulation.

Experts say that providing opportunities for people living with dementia to experience certain specially-designed technologies, can help entice them to interact more and creates a safe environment where they are free to try out new things.

Residents at Spencer Court played games on a ‘magic’ interactive table, learned how to take their very first selfies on a tablet and explored a specially-designed app that takes its users on a tour of galleries and museums from the comfort of their armchair.

Angie Williams, one of OSJCT’s specialist dementia Admiral Nurses, says: “I am proud that homes across OSJCT like Spencer Court are participating in various activities to mark Dementia Action Week. Many hundreds of thousands of families in the UK are affected by dementia so it is important we use opportunities like these to demonstrate ways we can all help enhance the lives of those living with the condition.”

If you would like to find out more about the activities and events at Spencer Court please call the home on 01993 812725, visit the webpage or follow us on Facebook.

At The Orders of St John Care Trust (OSJCT), we specialise in dementia care. The Trust has five Admiral Nurses (a lead and one in each OSJCT county) who spend time in the regional homes and not only care for residents living with dementia but help provide support for their loved ones, carers and the local community too.

Angie Williams, Lead Admiral Nurse, comments: “As an organisation, we celebrate Dementia Action Week as it is so important to try to break down barriers and the stigma associated with both dementia and care homes. Families and people from local communities are invited to join our homes for dementia awareness and life story events. Homes display a wide range of dementia related information during this week and the Admiral Nurses support Homes with events for families and people living with dementia.”

Dementia is a devastating illness and not only affects the person living with it, but those who love and care for the person as well. Understanding exactly what dementia is and how to support someone living with dementia can be confusing and overwhelming.

“We are always at hand to help provide support and information on dementia. This includes symptoms, understanding of the two most common forms of dementia - Alzheimer’s and Vascular dementia, how to get a diagnosis, sources of support for families and tips on how to communicate with someone living with dementia,” says OSJCT’s Admiral Nurse, Nicola Rowe. “It’s really important relatives talk to their loved one living with dementia, talk to each other, and talk to experts. It can be a very difficult conversation to have, and we are here to get the ball rolling on these conversations.”

The care homes in the Trust do regular activities to help their dementia residents. This can be through music therapy as seen at Monkscroft Care Centre in Cheltenham and animal therapy at Goodson Lodge in Trowbridge, The Lakes in South Cerney and Madley Park in Witney. Some examples of events taking place during Dementia Action week include Marden Court (Calne) holding ‘Dementia Friends’ sessions and Ashwood Care Centre (Warminster) having quizzes on dementia followed by helping at the local Blue Cross Charity shop. St Wilfrid’s Priory (Arundel) is organising an interactive theatre workshop with the local theatre company and school. Apple Trees is working closely with the Grantham Dementia Carers Support Group, who meet at St Anne’s church, to provide dementia training for the local community.

As a Trust we are really happy with this recognition and thankful for all the dedicated work delivered by our colleagues to ensure this independently endorsed success. The knowledge that our residents are content and receiving the best possible care with individual needs being met.

Sam King, Assistant Operations Director (Wiltshire), comments: “We are delighted to receive the ‘Good’ rating for Hayward Care Centre from the Care Quality Commission. It reflects how hard the team work at the home to make sure that the residents happiness is at the heart of what they do and the environment in which they reside, along with the carers expertise, is to the highest standards.”

Quotes from the CQC report:

Resident: “I would definitely recommend it as I am very happy here.”

Home Manager: “We do audits to monitor that we are on the right line, so we maintain improvements. Everyday we stop and have tea with the residents. It’s about quality time with residents. We are also part of the Devizes health and well-being group - getting us out into the community and helping the community.”

Rose Hoy is the head of dementia care at The Lakes Care Centre in South Cerney. Rose chose to work at The Lakes as she likes to make a difference and she wants residents to feel valued and have a purpose.

Rose has a background in nursing, having qualified as a nurse in 1975. Rose trained in general nursing and midwifery over in Africa before moving to the UK in 1988. Rose has worked in nursing homes and in dementia care before moving to The Lakes Care Centre in 2019.

Rose supports residents and their families in their dementia journey to help make it less frustrating and confusing for them, she aims to make the journey a bit more pleasant and happier for everyone.

Rose proactively reinforces how to approach difficult situations and residents who may be confused. Residents may choose to make unwise decisions, but Rose understands residents have the right to choose, whether it is a wise decision or not.

Rose supports the team and demonstrates how to approach Dementia in a person-centred way and to encourage the staff to be productive in encouraging residents to join in activities and to be mindful in their approach.

The Lakes Care Centre has a vast array of meaningful activities for residents to partake in, meaningful activities are those that engage the residents attention and connects with their interests, these are critical in the provision of care for those living with dementia.

Cheryl has worked in the care industry for over 20 years and started with OSJCT 4 ½ years ago, Cheryl initially started as a care leader in the dementia household at Jubilee Lodge. Cheryl then got promoted to a unit leader, before progressing to Head of Dementia Care at Edwardstow Court and supported with the setup 3 months prior to the opening of the home.

A ‘typical’ day for Cheryl is a day that you can never predict! Cheryl works alongside the team where she supports and empowers them to look after their residents living with dementia. Cheryl meets regularly with our resident’s family members where she listens to them and supports them when they are struggling with the transition or when there may be a change in the health.

Cheryl has the privilege of going out and meeting our new residents in their home before they move into Edwardstow, Cheryl will assess their needs and explain the process of moving in, in addition letting them know of all the exciting activities and events they will now be part of in their new home.

Cheryl says “In the 20 years I’ve worked in care, I’ve always worked with people living with dementia. I used to be scared of dementia but as I learned more and opened those gates it intrigued me to learn more, I then knew I always wanted to work with residents living with dementia”.

Most of all Cheryl spends as much time as she can with our residents, supporting their needs and joining in with their activities. Cheryl enjoys welcoming people to the home and she gets great satisfaction from people learning more about it, this has pushed Cheryl to host events for the community where they can learn more about dementia and the support available to them.

Cheryl’s favourite phrase is – ‘when you’ve met one person with dementia, you’ve only met one person with dementia’.

The next dementia event at Edwardstow is on Thursday 12th September 2-5pm, there will be talks around the benefits of animal therapy.

Rose from OSJCT Henlow Court was awarded the Gateway Award by Cathryn from the GL11 community hub which is based close to Henlow Court. GL11 community hub work with Stroud College to deliver The Gateway Award at their award winning community based hub.

Cathryn who delivers the course said, "Rose has been able to work hard completing all aspects of the course and I am delighted that she has gained her Gold Award, well done".

The Gateway Award is an activity based award that supports people in the local area of all abilities to make friends, experience new things, build confidence, improve health and wellbeing, whilst having fun along the way. The course includes lifestyle, fitness, hobbies, volunteering and setting up challenges.

Rose said, "I am so pleased to have this award and I am very proud, I like being part of this group’.
Staff and friends at Henlow Court were thrilled to hear of Rose’s fabulous news, congratulations Rose!

To find out more about The Gateway Award visit - https://www.gl11.org.uk/ or http://www.sgscol.ac.uk/CourseDetail.aspx?Campus=stroud&Department=communitylearning&Course=Gateway-Award

Karina Scoffield has always had a passion for makeup, so decided to turn her passion into a career and has now been a qualified makeup artist for 3 years.

Bridal makeup was her original focus, even winning the “English Wedding Award” for best makeup.

She has recently moved into the editorial makeup and has done her fair share of published magazine shoots, which she loves as the sets have a good vibe and it’s exciting. Some of the stranger locations she has worked on have been, a forest, skatepark, derelict mill, and even a flyover! It gives Karina the chance to show her creative flair as although some of the briefs can be strict, others allow for more artistic license.

She really enjoys doing period shoots and is looking forward to an upcoming job where the brief is to mix historical with modern, to create what I am sure will be amazing results and images.

As well as her work, she loves a challenge and really does her bit for the community and volunteers on projects that take her interest. She recently volunteered to do the makeup for a production of “The Adams Family” at Devizes school and was responsible for getting over 50 people stage-ready for the performance! When she was approached to come and share her passion with our residents, she was delighted to accept. Her brief was to use St George’s Day as inspiration. So, she created two looks: “Georgian and the dragon.”

Residents enjoyed a coffee and cake whilst they sat and watched Karina, asking her questions that she was more than happy to answer. We had a sing-a-long to “puff the magic dragon”, and songs from the 60s. One of our residents said, “it was not much of a makeover challenge on Aimie, as Aimie is already a beauty.”

Karina has lots of exciting new ventures to look forward to including being the onset makeup artist for a film that will be shooting in Bristol, and the possibility of her training in special effects. We wish her the best of luck in these ventures. She may be helping with some other projects at Coombe End Court, so hopefully it won’t be long before she visits us again.  

Liz who lives at Edwardstow Court in Stow-on-the-Wold has always been really active and she didn’t want that to change just because she is living in a care setting. The team at Edwardstow wanted Liz to continue with all the activities she has always enjoyed, so the team have found accessible transport to take her to a local gym and a personal trainer who attends the home.

Melissa Jones who has been a personal trainer in Stow for over 10 years regularly visits Liz at Edwardstow Court to train and support her to keep her strength and in turn this helps Liz to remain as independent as possible. Melissa said “I do this for strength, but I also do it to support a good mindset, I put feel good music on and we have a singalong. I love being able to see a difference in Liz since we started training. She’s great, she’s just great and I really enjoy it“.

Liz and Melissa always wear their neon active wear and have the music turned up loud, Liz loves having a little dance and singalong throughout the session too. Liz says “Having these sessions makes me feel more alive”

Melissa always ensures she explains what they are doing throughout the sessions and how this will benefit Liz. Melissa has built a great friendship with Liz and the sessions are so much more than just keeping fit and strong.

Apple Trees was recognised as ‘outstanding’ in care and across the rest of the board with a ‘Good’ for services of safety, effectiveness, responsiveness, and being well-led.

As a Trust we are delighted by this recognition and thankful for all the hard work delivered by our colleagues to ensure this independently endorsed success. The knowledge that our residents are happy and receiving the best possible care with individual needs being met.

Louise Kirk, Area Operations Manager for Apple Trees, comments: “The team at Apple Trees has excelled in the care domain to achieve this result. Everyone always goes above and beyond their roles to ensure the residents living in the home receive excellent positive outcomes. The team has an inspirational leader in Denise Booth whose dedication and innovation has put Apple Trees in the forefront of specialist dementia care. The home has also been recognised by the Alzheimer’s Society in being a pivotal member in developing ‘Lift the Lid on sex and intimacy.”

Quote from the CQC report on the service provided by Apple Trees:

“Staff went above and beyond to ensure people received excellent care that was individual and important to them. During the inspection, staff consistently demonstrated a clear understanding of the provider's values of providing high standards of compassionate care, this was seen in the delivery of care and how staff talked about their work. They also showed great respect to people. A staff member said, "The residents live here it is their home, we are just visitors." Staff spoken with told us how they regarded people they cared for as 'extended family'. Feedback from people who used the service and visiting relatives, echoed this sentiment. Staff were consistently described as "excellent", staff go "above and beyond" and "I regard staff as my family."

On 2nd of May, the staff and residents of St Wilfrid’s Priory were honoured to host an amazing individual; Tracey Stemp. Over a period of 12 months, Tracey completed 12 marathons raising money for the residents at St Wilfrid’s. Tracey managed to raise an amazing £330 for the residents.

“It is such an amazing thing that Tracy did for our residents. I am proud to know Tracy and proud to be part of such an amazing local community.” – Rachel Staker (Home Manager).

It was a wonderful morning filled with smiles as Tracey spoke with the residents and showed off some of the medals she’d won at the marathons. She talked to residents about her training and the importance of training physically and mentally for the marathons.

We at St Wilfrid’s can not thank Tracey enough for this donation. It is with great pleasure that I announce what that kind donation is going to be used for. After a meeting with the residents and some wonderful ideas put forward. It was decided that the money was going to be used to buy a record player. We at OSJCT know just how important music is to our residents and the positive effect it can have on our residents.  

If you have any vinyl records from the 50s onwards and would like to donate them to St Wilfrid’s please feel free to get in contact.