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There were 21 members this evening at the carers group meeting, with Dr Angela and Andrew from Carlton Court Care Home. The session was run by Kevin and Keren this evening as Lisa was at another work meeting.

The first topic of conversation was asking any easy ways to teach a partner information about running of the house if the other husband or wife had always done this throughout the relationship . Age UK website have something called a life book to help with this.
www.ageuk.org.uk

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A reduction of appetite and food eaten was next discussed. This brought about various ideas to encourage people to eat more. There was a suggestion to keep a food diary for a few days to monitor this. NB The drink bottles of Ensure that can be prescribed through GPs were not encouraged as they are an expensive resource for the NHS (£5 per bottle – as they have a huge mark-up on them when prescribed) Alternative drinks can be made up at home including crushed up vitamin tablets including a zinc tablet. Andrew was going to provide the group with “an ensure alternative” recipe.

Andrew also was helpful with the next topic; Lifting and handling. He said he could provide some further information and pointed the group to some YouTube online training. Kevin shared a device that he had at home for helping stand up and others discussed bedrails. It was mentioned that as carers we must be very aware of our own back care!

There was a couple of recommendations for chiropodists that are not too expensive and will do home visits:
Rosemary charges approximately £30 (Maurice to provide phone number)
Nigel Hurst in North Finchley (028) 8446 0041 or 07956 827885
Andrew mentioned any extra support needed for this we could look into North Central London ‘NCL’ CCG?

For the last half an hour of the session we went round and asked anyone who hadn’t spoken of any issues they may like to raise. A couple of people said they just enjoyed listening and being part of the group learning from others rather than speaking out.

The subject of Family members that had not been in contact recently was mentioned. Asking would it be a good idea to pretend to send flowers from them to make the person living with dementia feel better? Some members of the group  felt this could be a nice and harmless gesture!

Finally, a question was raised that as restrictions are now lifting re meeting up outdoors from Monday 29th of March, would care homes be following the same rules and allow more visits in their gardens. Andrew said they are still waiting for public-health England to issue these guidelines,  then individual care homes would have to do their own risk assessments.

Everyone was thanked and the meeting closed at 8.35pm

We had 20 members today. The new Karaoke music selection at 2pm was a real treat especially as members look forward to hearing their requests. At 2.30pm everyone was then ready for their chats and then Ian James our music entertainer joined us 5 minutes before starting his music to greet everyone. Members really like that as Ian is a very jolly person. Ian sang a medley of music favourites today which got everyone singing along.

Rachel then joined us for the dance exercise session. Members look forward to this as Rachel provides dance routines for everyone to participate.

Lisa then did a 1950’s multiple choice quiz which everyone did really well. Lisa then called out the Bingo numbers and the winner today was Jackie and Joan. Jacqui and Joan are now the winners for Bingo 9. Lisa has decided to continue with the same game for tomorrow to give another winner a chance to win hopefully and will start Bingo 10 next week after Easter.

The Karaoke session started at 2pm as usual and then everyone looks forward to the chat session at 2.30pm. It was a lovely sunny and warm day and everyone felt happy. Lisa mentioned that there were 2 celebrations – Hindu (Holi) Holiday and also the Jewish Passover and wished all those who celebrated best wishes. Lisa then welcomed Laurence one of the Rotary members who has been away for  3 months in hospital recovering from Covid. It was a pleasure to see him. Lisa then reminded everyone that next Monday there is no session as it is Bank Holiday. Lisa also reminded everyone that the carers session tomorrow will be run by Kevin and Keren as Lisa and Mark have to attend another work meeting.

Katie Paine our music entertainer then joined us and everyone was pleased to see Katie especially as she has been unwell with migraines. Katie’s theme today was lady singers of the 50’s. She started of course with a favourite – Doris Day and then introduced other favourite songs which everyone sang along to.

Eon Walters then joined us and started the exercise session. Eon makes sure everyone exercises.

The quiz today was taken by Kevin and this was naming famous Politicians. The winners were Stephen and Brenda and Pam and John. Kevin jokingly said that their prize was a night out with John Major and Edwina Curry. Everyone laughed.

Lisa then called out the Bingo and as Lisa would like to hopefully have a winner this week, she carried on calling the Bingo numbers so that there were a number of winners. There are now a few members with 2 wins. Laurie Porter, John & Audrey, Kevin & Mabel, Pamela & John, Joan, Stephen & Brenda, Jackie & Joan and helen & Chrystalla. Who will be the 9th Bingo Winner before Easter?

We had 23 members today. The Karaoke session started at 2pm and then at 2.30pm everyone enjoys their chat. It was lovely to see Melvyn and Andrew from the church. Everyone had either flowers in their hair today or were wearing flowery clothing. It was agreed last week that today would be ‘Flower Power’. Pam also announced that it was their 57 years wedding anniversary. Lisa and everyone joined to wish Pam and John Happy Anniversary. James Le Bec and Joy then joined and also heard about Pam and John’s wedding anniversary and James sang Congratulations which was very much appreciated. James sang a number of popular songs and then continued with the music quiz  which everyone enjoys. Gina, Kevin, Sandra  got the highest scores in the music quiz with 9 out of 10.

Richard Kravetz then joined us for the Yoga exercises which as usual everyone looks forward to and then this follows with a quiz. Today’s quiz was about Cats and Dogs and the different breeds. The winners with the highest score was Marina and Stephen and Brenda.

Lisa then called out the Bingo numbers and today’s winner was Pam and John.

We had 29 members this evening.  Lisa welcomed everyone and mentioned that as today was the anniversary of when the pandemic lockdown started last year, Lisa suggested a minute silence at 8pm to commemorate all those that passed away. Everyone agreed.

Lisa then started the meeting and introduced Marcelo Navarro – Managing Director of Christie’s Care was invited. Marcelo briefly talked about the organisation and the types of care provided. As we had no seminar this evening as Andrew was unfortunately unwell, members used the time to ask Marcelo various questions and then other topics of discussion were raised. 

We had 21 members today. The Karaoke session started at 2pm as usual and everyone really enjoyed singing along to the new songs.  The chat time which follows at 2.30pm to 3pm is always very popular although today was a little challenging as there were a few internet interruptions. It was lovely to see Ian James our music entertainer who always joins earlier to chat with everyone and makes everyone laugh. Ian also showed us his dog Sonny who was quite bigger than when we saw him first a few months ago as a small puppy. Ian sang country and western songs today which everyone enjoyed and sang along.

We were then joined by Rachel for the exercises. Everyone is used to Rachel’s routines now and look forward to them.

Lisa then continued with doing 2 short quizzes. The first quiz was to complete 10 song titles and the second quiz was 10 questions where members had to guess the American word e.g. British say rubbish but the Americans say trash. It was great fun and it also got everyone chatting about some of their past holiday experiences in America where they tried to ask for something using the British word but they were not understood. Gina and Kevin got all the answers right for the song titles and Pam got the highest score for the words with 6 out of 10 .

Lisa then called out the Bingo and the winner today was Jackie and Joan.

We had 25 members today. Everyone enjoyed the Karaoke session at 2pm and then everyone was happy to meet and chat at 2.30pm. As it was a lovely sunny day, everyone was also feeling happier. Lisa welcomed everyone and then enjoyed having lots of different chats. Lisa informed everyone that unfortunately Katie Paine our music entertainer was not joining us today as she was not feeling well. Lisa however arranged for James Le Bec to cover the session.

Thank you James and Joy for covering the music entertainment session today. James asked if there was a birthday and Helen mentioned that it was her daughter Gabrielle’s birthday today. James and everyone therefore joined to sing happy birthday. James then sang a variety of singalongs which everyone joined in to sing. James reminded everyone about Wednesday’s session which is a  ‘Flower Power’ theme and everyone should wear a flower in their hair or wear flowery clothing.

Eon Walters then joined us for the exercises and this is always very popular with members as Eon not only makes it fun but Eon makes sure that everyone is participating and keeping awake.

Kevin then did the quiz today and he had prepared 10 riddle questions. Some were easy but some needed Lisa to give a few clues. The winners with the highest scores were Pam, Joan and Helen with 8 out of 10. Thank you Kevin for organising the quiz today.

Lisa then finished with calling out the Bingo numbers and the winner today was Laurie Porter.

We had 24 members today. The Karaoke session started at 2pm as usual and then at 2.30pm everyone was happy and ready to chat. Lisa welcomed everyone. As it was St Patrick’s Day many of the members were wearing something green which was really nice. James Le Bec then joined us and Joy was wearing a hat with a yellow flower. James started the music entertainment with a few happy songs and then it was time for the music quiz. The music quiz this week was James singing a few seconds of each song for members to guess the name of the song. The winners for this part was Gina and Chris and Sandra and Laurie who got all the answers right. James finished off with a couple of Irish songs and an upbeat song for everyone to dance.

Richard Kravetz then joined us and as usual everyone participates with great interest to all the exercises which are also great fun. Richard’s quiz after was to name the slogans which were TV adverts. This was a multiple choice choosing out of 3 answers. The winner was Jackie and Joan with 8 out of 10.

Lisa then called the Bingo numbers and the winner was Stephen and Brenda.

We had 26 members this evening. Lisa welcomed her special guest – Dr David Jefferys and gave a short introduction about him before introducing him to talk. Lisa also welcomed her Trustees and also it was a pleasure to welcome Eshwan Seedoyal (Barnet Memory Service Team Leader).

Lisa mentioned David’s last meeting was at the Finchley Memorial Hospital in January 2020. Although we knew at the time there were problems with the virus in China, we were not aware that it would lead to this pandemic.

David’s talk was very inspirational and full of hope. He talked about his work and discussions with the Prime Minister about the various vaccines. David also discussed the various trials and especially how the Aducanumab clinical trials have moved on in the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease.

Many questions followed from members especially with the recent news about the AstraZeneca vaccine and the concerns about blood clots. David responded to say that there is no evidence of a link to support this. David said that there are more concerns if people do not have the vaccine as one of the symptoms of Covid-19 is blood clots develop in the lungs. David explained the various vaccines and how the UK was able to develop a vaccine which under normal circumstances would take 10 years to develop but in this case took 10 months. We should be very proud. There were various other questions asked and David provided a full answer to all.

Members were very grateful and honoured to have such an important highly qualified special guest to our group meeting especially to explain to us after recent news about the AstraZeneca vaccine. David had another meeting he had to attend but before leaving he said how pleased he was to join the group this evening. Lisa thanked him.

After David left, Lisa opened the meeting to members to ask any other personal questions they wanted to raise. A number of concerns were raised and Eshwan very kindly was able to respond to some of the concerns and also Dr Angela. Eshwan also mentioned that he would ask Helen Newman the Chief Executive of Age UK to attend one of our carers group meetings. Everyone was very pleased to hear that especially as Age UK have now received the contract from Barnet Council to deliver the Barnet Dementia Support Service from the 1st April 2021.

Before closing the meeting, Lisa mentioned that Andrew Wrensch will be back next week and the topic of discussion would be ‘Stroke Awareness’ and ‘Mindfulness’. The stroke awareness talk would be a joint talk with Dr Angela who would provide the latest advice. Lisa also mentioned that she had invited a carers organisation called ‘Christies Care’ who was attending the first half hour to introduce himself and say a few words about what his organisation offers.

We had 23 members today. The new Tuesday Karaoke session was great and then Lisa welcomed everyone at 2.30pm. Lisa reminded everyone about the Census and the importance to complete it well especially the questions which ask about the number of hours of caring. Lisa also reminded everyone about our special guest later at the carers group meeting Dr David Jefferys. Ian James our music entertainer then joined us and as usual made a grand entrance and got everyone laughing too. His music today was cockney singalongs. Everyone really loved it singing along and moving around to the music.

Rachel then joined us for the exercises. Rachel has established various routines which everyone has become familiar with and confident in their moves. The more challenging energetic salsa, disco moves towards the end of the session is really popular.

Lisa then did a short TV Adverts quiz and the winners were Gina and Chris, Pam, Sandra and Kevin with 8 out of 10. Lisa then called out the Bingo numbers and there were 2 winners today – Gina and Chris and Joan.