Category: Blog

Today was our launch of Tovertafel to the community and the unveiling of the plaque. We had 2 special guests – The Mayor of Barnet Cllr Reuben Thompstone with his 4 year old Son Thomas supporting the Mayor and it was also a pleasure to welcome Theresa Villiers MP for Chipping Barnet and also our Patron for Dementia Club UK.

Other guests were;

• Nigel Wray – Chairman of Saracens
• Rose Degen – Saracens Charity Relationship Manager
• Mehdi Bedioui – from Tovertafel (CEO & Co-founder of Shift 8 the company
• Andrew Spiers – from Tovertafel –Sales Director
• Kay Matthews – NHS Barnet Chief Operating officer
• Ian Bretman – Lay Member for Patient and Public Engagement
• Robyn Sandler – Communications & Engagement Manager for Barnet CCG
• Alan Gavurin – Estates Lead & Managing Director, Damson Health
• Representatives from Community Health Partnerships
• Sarah Perrin – Lead Commissioner Mental health and Dementia
• Cllr. Caroline Stock – Chairman of Health & WellBeing Board
• Mathew Kendall – Director of Adults & Communities Services
• Richard Healy – CEO Barnet Community Transport
• Rotarians from Edgware & Stanmore and Hendon
• Anne Duggan – from The Fremantle Trust
• Mayana McDermott – from SENSE a National disability charity
• Monique from The Alzheimer’s Society
• Sasha Capocci – from The Studios Rotary Club Borehamwood who made the celebratory cake today and donated it to Dementia Club UK.

It was also a pleasure to see many of the members of Dementia Club UK.

Five years ago on the 14th August 2013 Dementia Club UK opened the first dementia café in Barnet in this hospital and this was commemorated by an unveiling of a plaque which is outside room 62 on the wall. The dementia café was opened with funds that I raised when I was Mayor of Barnet in 2011/2012.

Dementia Club UK is now running 7 dementia clubs in the Borough of Barnet and one in Borehamwood. This would not have been possible of course without the continued support of Nigel Wray Chairman of Saracens.

The unveiling of this plaque today commemorates a special piece of equipment called Tovertafel which has been donated by Dementia Club UK to The Finchley Memorial Hospital and this is the first London hospital to have this equipment.

This wonderful innovation was brought to the UK by John Ramsay and Mehdi Bedioui, Founders of Shift 8 – the company.

The Tovertafel means ‘Magic table’ in Dutch and has been designed to help those people with mid to progressed dementia and will also benefit people with learning disabilities and children and adults with autism. Tovertafel consists of a series of interactive games that are projected on a table and can be played independently or with friends and family.

The Tovertafel was installed in this hospital on the 24th March 2018.

Dementia Club UK members have enjoyed playing with The Tovertafel and we are now opening this to the community. I have seen people with progressed dementia and when they sit at The Tovertafel table their face suddenly lights up with joy and they start to interact by trying to reach and touch the projected animations.

As a carer myself as my mother has progressed Alzheimer’s disease, I know the difficulties and challenges carers and families are faced with daily. To be able to provide some respite not only for the dementia suffers but also their carers and families is so important. Giving them something to look forward to and new innovations such as The Tovertafel makes a huge difference to their lives.

Dementia Club UK has joined together with Saracens, Barnet Council, The Fremantle Trust, Rotary, NHS and NHS Barnet Clinical Commissioning Group and Community Health Partnerships to now promote The Tovertafel to the community.

Finchley Memorial Hospital is in a prime location and with its increased number of services coming soon will become a very busy hospital. I am also working with Richard Healy and TfL to help establish a bus route that will be able to come down the long road to the hospital entrance.

I hope that many people with dementia and people with learning disabilities will come and enjoy The Tovertafel. For those interested to book the Tovertafel, please contact me.

PICTURES TO FLLOW

I was delighted to be invited by Rotary Club Hendon to their meeting on Monday 20th August at The Brent Cross Holiday Inn to speak about dementia and Dementia Club UK.

It was a pleasure to meet all the other Rotarians who made me feel very welcomed.

After my speech, they were interested to ask me questions as they felt very moved with how dementia affects people in society. I was then nicely surprised to be presented with a cheque by the President which I am very grateful.

This was our second session at Allum Manor and it was a sunny warm afternoon. In fact members who came early enjoyed sitting in the sunshine on the benches outside.

When members were settled with their teas and cakes, Mark (Trustee) did a quiz which members really enjoyed and as usual were competing with each table.

Richard then arrived and members were ready to start their chair yoga exercises which also included some exercise games with bean bags.

Members were then ready and to welcome Moshe with his music entertainment and as usual Moshe got members up and dancing and some members wanted to sing some of their favourite songs. We didn’t have a big group today but members who attended really enjoyed themselves. Thank you to Mark for helping throughout the session.

Today’s report from session leader Danielle:

A small group today, as reflected by the summer season, but we had a particularly fun time. The ‘Three Degrees’ from Rotary of Northwick Park, aka Helen, Ritu & Mollie, as ever, served up delicious cakes and kept the tea flowing.

Rotary of Edgware and Stanmore members, Danielle, Sonia & Nandini, as well as Beryl, who currently runs the hall, all got stuck in chatting and colouring in from Danielle’s fab 1960s groovy pattern book. Bernadette even found one of a woman’s face with flowing hair, reminding her of her days as a hairdresser.

Richard, our resident chair yoga trainer, introduced Dyna Band exercises to the activity group, followed by a special lesson of exercises for the core back strengthening, which Jacqueline especially benefited from. We were reminded by Lisa, who has had a 30-year career in fitness, of the importance of keeping physical but in a paced way!

Thanks to Rotarian Peter for coming along at closing time to help put chairs and tables away

We had a very busy session with 31 members. After everyone settled with their teas, Lisa introduced Mark, one of the Trustees to start the quiz. Everyone looks forward to the quiz especially as each table becomes very competitive.

Richard then arrived to do the Chair Yoga with members. Richard always makes it not only challenging but very enjoyable. In fact members had overtime today because they wanted more.

Lisa had a poem today called ‘The True Meaning of Life’ As it had 11 verses, she got different members to read each verse. Everyone enjoyed reading the poem.

Lisa then played some of the usual music favourites which gets everyone singing and up dancing. It was near the end of the session and David one of the Golders Green Rotarians then told a joke which made members laugh.

Everyone left with a smile. Thank you to my Volunteers – Mark, Rotarians Michael, David and Dick for attending and helping. Also thank you to Risom who is always so helpful.

This was a very busy and exciting session. Members arrived and quickly settled with their teas as they were looking forward to seeing the students. They had no idea however what else was in store for the session.

We not only had the return of the NCS Students but Lisa also had 3 other surprise visitors. Lisa only found out the day before that the BBC Television wanted to visit the Dementia Club because they were interested in doing a film and documentary about the Tovertafel.

We also had visitors from Tovertafel – Medhi, Lloyd, Sofia and John as they were equally excited about the BBC attending. Our third surprise visitor was Mike Freer MP for Finchley who received a warm welcome.

BBC Journalists Claire Bates and Nick Holland arrived early to set up the cameras and also took the opportunity to interview Lisa before the session and during the session. Members were also excited when BBC also wanted to interview some of the members.

The students had some time to prepare and then Lisa introduced them to start their performance. They prepared to play charades and also brought some costumes like fancy hats and various colourful feather boas which members enjoyed wearing.

Members were too clever with the charades but it was all good fun. Lisa then played the music for ‘round the mountain’ and the students were singing along with the members. The session was really buzzing. Lisa then read a few jokes which members always enjoy.

It was then time for Tovertafel. Members were already seated and waiting and the BBC Journalists were positioned in action. There was a lot of position, camera and action. Members enjoyed the attention and the busy session. The BBC program will be aired in September hopefully on Alzheimer’s Day.

Thank you to my volunteers Melvyn and Dr Angela for their help during the session.

Today’s session was run by Justine. At the start of the session, the guests were served tea, coffee and lovely biscuits and were happy chatting to each other.

The session leader then did a quiz and everyone enjoyed it! This was followed by a lively session of entertainment provided by the very talented James LeBec. James sang a variety of popular songs to which many of the guests and helpers danced & he even did a music quiz where our guests had to guess the name of the song! It was great fun!

After James left, the guests continued to chat and there was also table tennis, mini golf, darts and board games! Dominoes in particular was a huge hit! Approximately 33 guests and carers attended the session with the assistance of six helpers from the synagogue.

Rabbi Shulamit Ambalu who came in especially to see our guests and to see our Club, the Rabbi enjoyed attending the session and was impressed.

My thanks to our volunteers today Stephen, Gilda, Dottie, Judy, Keith and Justine.

This was a really busy session. I am pleased that I had 2 volunteers today – Melvyn and Karish. When members were settled with their teas and cakes, Lisa gave members a general knowledge quiz which they really liked and worked together in groups. As usual quizzes start conversations and members also like competing with other groups.

The chatting continued as one of the carers Ernie showed members an old photo of when his father was 10 years old in 1921 at a primary school in Islington. In fact Ernie went to the school too. Members were very interested to see the photo which pictured a classroom very different to what classrooms are like now.

We also had a birthday to celebrate today. It was Francis’s birthday on the 28th July and she is 90 years old. Francis brought two cakes to share which included a birthday cake and of course the birthday was celebrated in the usual DCUK fashion.

Two new members joined us half way through the session. The other members made them feel welcome. They soon felt very comfortable and joined in with discussions. In fact David the new member wanted to sing an old time favourite and this then started all the other members to join in. More songs followed and everyone was having great fun.

It was now time to start the Tovertafel and Karish was very happy to lead. Members were given foam batons to reach on the table and plates to catch their fish.

We then had a lovely surprise when Dr Vivienne Watkin (Consultant Psychiatrist at Barnet Hospital) and Steve Bogen (Barnet social services) walked in to the room. They were visiting patients in the hospital and decided to also drop in to our dementia club. Dr Watkin was pleasantly surprised to see quite a few familiar faces and members were also delighted to see Dr Watkin. Dr Watkin was pleased to see how everyone was really happy and enjoying the session especially as she refers some of her patients to the dementia club. Dr Watkin and Steve were really interested to see the Tovertafel in action and were very impressed.

Members left with a smile and had a happy time. Thank you to the volunteers Melvyn and Karish for helping during the session.

The number of members who came to this month’s session was much higher than last month and they all had a fantastic time. The session started by welcoming the members and offering them teas and coffee plus biscuits.

Lisa the Chairman of Dementia Club UK was then presented with a £300 donation from Jim the President of Rotary Club of Barnet. The money donated was raised during the selling of plants in the East Barnet Festival on the 7th and 8th of July. Lisa was delighted to receive this money and announced that the money will be used to go towards the official launch of Rotary Club of Barnet dementia club.

The members were then asked to take part in a quiz. They were asked to identify the names of 12 pictures. Richard then arrived and did exercise yoga with the members. The colourful beanbags were used again as part of the exercises and it was very enjoyable by all the members.

The yoga session then followed with Clare singing her usual popular songs and all members had a lot of fun by singing and dancing. Thank you to our church volunteers making teas and coffees and setting up the venue; Dorothy, Brenda and Andrew.

Thank you to our Rotarians from Barnet; Jim (President), Malcolm, Victor, Simon, Brian and John with his wife Amalia and our GP – Doctor Rebecca Hatjiosif who volunteers her time to provide medical advice to members and take blood pressures. It was also a nice surprise to see Sasha from Rotary Club of Elstree and Borehamwood Studio who came to visit.