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Lisa welcomed everyone and started promptly as there was a very busy agenda. We had 29 members this evening. Lisa started with news and updates. She repeated the news about the unpaid carers she mentioned at the earlier dementia club session and also about Adam Purnell the care home manager in Lancashire and the 2 articles as mentioned before.

Lisa gave thanks to Maurice one of the carers who emails Lisa the articles as soon as he reads them.

Lisa then informed members that she had invited Professor David Jefferys and he was attending the carers group session on Tuesday 16th March. Everyone was very pleased to hear the news.

Lisa also had some news to pass on from another carer who informed her that whilst her own carer was not working because her mother was recovering in hospital, she was happy to offer her carer to someone else for a few weeks.

Lisa then mentioned the wonderful feedback she was receiving about the seminars that Andrew Wrensch was delivering and mentioned that a couple of people had asked whether it was possible to record the seminars. Lisa informed everyone that she had looked into this and after discussing this with her Trustees, it was decided that it would not be a good idea as there may be Privacy issues and we also need to be careful as a registered charity that we don’t get into any trouble with the charity commission.

Lisa then introduced a short video clip of Dr John Campbell talking about Vitamin D and how this is processed in the human body. As the video is 30 minutes we only had time to show about 12 minutes but Lisa assured everyone that she would provide the URL for everyone to see the full video in their own. The video raised some questions about how much Vitamin D is sufficient and someone mentioned their recent blood test revealed that they had too much Vitamin D. Dr Angela advised that when someone is advised of their vitamin D levels they should ask for the numbers and also ask for a hormone test if the level is too high.

Dr Angela said that she would also look into this further for next week

It was now 7.30pm and Lisa welcomed Andrew and also Margaret Fell Colle – the Admiral Nurse who has attended a few times before.

Andrew’s seminar today was about ‘Sleep Disturbance and dementia care’.

Andrew went through his slides and was then ready for questions and answers. There were quite a few questions. The seminar was very interesting and informative providing lots of good advice about what foods are helpful and about the importance of having enough hours of sleep and how to help those with dementia who do not understand night and day. One of the members also mentioned about an Army trick which helps her fall asleep in 2 minutes called ‘The American Sleep’. Lisa and all the members thanked Andrew.

Next week’s seminar decided was – “Wellbeing & Activities”

We had 26 members today. Lisa started the karaoke at 2pm and then at 2.30pm Lisa welcomed everyone during the chat time.

Lisa told the members about the good news with unpaid carers now moving up the Government priority list to receive their vaccinations. This is good news especially after Lisa’s speech at the last council meeting asking the Government to consider moving the priority for unpaid carers vaccination up on the list. Lisa is so pleased the JCVI have listened.

https://www.carersuk.org/news-and-campaigns/press-releases/carers-uk-welcomes-news-that-unpaid-carers-will-be-in-next-phase-of-covid-19-vaccinations

Lisa also mentioned about 2 articles in the Sunday Times paper and Sky News regarding ‘visiting in care homes’.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/the-care-home-where-elderly-residents-arent-off-limits-to-loved-ones-n7dvvqfqq?shareToken=c9bf93b00bede040fe5db4d11226c732

http://news.sky.com/story/covid-19-banning-care-home-visits-inhumane-and-barbaric-says-one-still-allowing-family-contact-12219167

Lisa reminded everyone when Adam Purnell was invited to attend one of the carers group meetings on the 8th December 2020. Adam is a Care Home Manager at Kepplegate Care Services in Lancashire and he spoke about his best practices and how he didn’t need to stop visiting in his care home during the pandemic.

Too many loved ones in care homes have passed away. It’s about time all care homes start to follow and learn to put similar best practices in their care homes to allow relatives to visit their loved ones. Lisa said how very proud she felt of what Adam has achieved and hopefully these best practices will spread to other care homes.

Lisa also mentioned that she has emailed Theresa Villiers MP and also Mike Rich CEO of Barnet Carers Centre and also the Leader of Barnet Council.

Members were delighted to hear this news.

Ian James then joined and members cheered to see him and said how they really missed him. Ian was also very happy to be back and gave a very entertaining session with a variety of popular songs which everyone loved. Rachel was then ready to start her exercise session and everyone is now used to Rachel’s style of teaching which works well.

Rachel had prepared the Saturday Night Fever routine today which was a real success and everyone loved especially the ‘Put on your seat belt’ move. It was great fun and Rachel will repeat it again next week with a bit more of a challenge.

Kevin then took over to do a short Family Fortunes Quiz game. A bit of fun banter between Kevin and Lisa which everyone likes. When it came to adding up the scores unfortunately that was a bit of a challenge so that was left with no results.

Lisa then called out the Bingo numbers and todays winner was Laurie Porter.

We had 27 members today. It was a sunny day and not so cold as normal which made everyone feel happier. Lisa’s Karaoke session as usual was great and everyone feeds back to say how they enjoy it. The chat times are also great after and Lisa has the opportunity to provide any updates and talk to members. Some of the members were wearing red today especially as it was Valentine’s Day yesterday. Katie Paine our music entertainer was then ready to start and she was also wearing a red dress. Katie’s theme today was Elton John and sang quite a few music favourites. In fact one our carers Kevin looked the part with his Elton John big glasses and his mini piano keyboard. The last 5 minutes was an Elton John quiz and it was interesting to hear from Katie that she used to work with Elton John and she also has as a memento his piano stall which she treasures.

Eon Walters was then ready to start the exercises. Eon’s music is so motivating and gets everyone really working out. Everyone also wished Eon a Happy Wedding Anniversary as yesterday on Valentine’s Day it was his 22 years anniversary.

Lisa then carried on with the session and today Lisa prepared a food and chocolate quiz. There were 16 questions and the top scores were Pam and Joan with 13 out of 16. Lisa then read out a couple of jokes which everyone enjoyed and then called out the Bingo numbers. The Bingo winners today were Keren and Frances and Laurie and Sandra.

We had visitor, Adam Punell to one of our carer sessions where he explained about his care home that allows visits from loved ones during COVID and the procedures he uses to keep his residents safe.

The link below is from the Sunday Times which has a full article on it.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/the-care-home-where-elderly-residents-arent-off-limits-to-loved-ones-n7dvvqfqq

We had 21 members. Lisa started the Karaoke as usual at 2pm and at 2.30pm members were ready for their chats. One of the members – Chris had a birthday today and everyone gave him their best wishes. Kevin – one of the carers decided to wear a false black moustache and a Queen’s crown today impersonating Freddie Mercury. Everyone thought it was very funny including James Le Bec when he joined us to start the music entertainment. Kevin asked for a special song request and James decided to sing – Crazy little thing called Love By Queen

James then made sure everyone sang Happy Birthday to Chris before starting the music quiz. The dice was not too kind today with the numbers but we still ended up with a good score of 120 points. Gina and Chris scored 10 out of 10 in the music quiz and followed by Pam with 8. Before James finished, Kevin made a final song request for James to play the Queen’s National Anthem especially as he was wearing the crown. Everyone made an effort to stand at this point too.

Richard Kravetz then joined us for the Yoga exercises and his theme today was ‘Love’ as Valentine’s Day was soon. He then followed with a Valentine’s quiz and the winners with a top score of 7 out of 10 were Keren and Frances and their pretend prize were flowers and chocolates.

Lisa then read out a Valentine poem to everyone and then called out the Bingo numbers. The Bingo winner today was Keren and Frances.

We had 30 members this evening. Lisa welcomed everyone and also Andrew Wrensch who is delivering the weekly training and Mike Rich – CEO of Barnet Carers Centre. Lisa informed everyone that the first half of the session from 7pm to 7.30pm this would be an opportunity for a general chat before Andrew started the Training at 7.30pm. The session then started promptly and Lisa had 3 questions which were emailed by members previously to this session that wanted to discuss.

The first topic was about looking forward and planning a break for carers and their loved ones. The pandemic has caused a lot of disruption and stress to people’s lives and having something to look forward to was important. Lisa suggested an organisation called Revitalise https://revitalise.org.uk/ as they have previously attended to do a talk before the pandemic at one of the dementia clubs. Lisa showed a slide show of one of the centres called Sandpipers –

https://revitalise.turtl.co/story/lockdown-breaks-at-sandpipers/

– showing briefly what Revitalise can provide at this centre. Although Revitalise have more centres, at this present moment during the pandemic they are not operating their usual service as their other 2 centres are working in partnership with the NHS welcoming patients from local hospitals so that they can make room for Covid positive patients. Lisa informed members that the links would be in the in the zoom chat section.

At this point Mike Rich who is CEO of Barnet Carers Centre mentioned that he is happy to offer Grants for carers for Travel and breaks for a maximum of £300. Members were delighted to hear this and thanked Mike.

The second topic which was emailed to Lisa to discuss was – ‘Early Detection, Prevention and Treatment of dementia’ Lisa mentioned the previous visit to the carers group session from Dr Paresh Malhotra a consultant neurologist and lecturer at Imperial College who did discuss these briefly and also clinical trials. Lisa also mentioned that she wanted to invite Dr David Jefferys – a Professor of Medicine and Senior Vice President in Eisai. Lisa also mentioned that these topics would be explained in more details through the weekly training delivered by Andrew Wrensch.

The third topic was about Vaccinations and the side effects. For this Lisa decided to play a YouTube introducing Dr John Campbell talking about vaccinations and side effects. Everyone thought this was very informative. Lisa then informed members how to find the YouTube and also provided the link in the zoom chat section Dr. John Campbell – YouTube

Lisa then introduced Andrew at 7.30pm to start the Training and Andrew introduced the topic – ‘Understanding Distressed Behaviour’. Andrew explained that if there were more issues raised after today’s training that needed expanding, he would happily continue in providing a part 2 to next week’s training on this topic. Andrew presented the topic and showed different slides to explain. After Andrew finished his presentation he opened up the session to questions.

Everyone first thanked and congratulated Andrew and were so overwhelmed by the training he provided as it touched a lot of the carers in how they were feeling personally in their own situations. As anticipated, further questions and concerns were raised in the discussion and Dr Angela one of our Trustees was very helpful responding to medical concerns and questions leading Andrew to confirm that next week he will be introducing a Part 2 training discussing – How do we deal with distress, Sun Downing, How we could promote healthier sleeping cycles and also he will be researching on the Bladder issues.

A couple of members asked if the slides could be made available and also if the Training could be recorded. Andrew informed members that he would email Lisa the slides after every Training and is happy for the Training to be recorded but we must also be mindful of members privacy.

Lisa said that she would email everyone the Training slides and also refer them to the website for further details.

We had 28 members today. Lisa welcomed everyone and reminded them about the carers group session later. A few members had forgotten that the Karaoke started at 2pm but as there were a few technical issues today and our music entertainer was also unable to perform, Lisa had to put plan B in motion and repeat the karaoke again. This pleased many members who missed the first one.

Everyone liked the choice of music and especially liked Night Fever. We were reminded of the dress code with men’s flares and the ladies with pretty frocks and the line dancing, pleasant memories!

Our exercise instruction Rachel was then ready and waiting to start and Lisa also informed Rachel how members were loving the Night Fever music and suggested to Rachel that perhaps she can prepare a line dancing routine for Night Fever next week. Rachel was happy to do this and said that if members had any other favourite song they wanted to dance, to let Rachel know.

The session then continued with Kevin today, one of the carers as he organised a Riddles quiz. There were 10 questions and they were really good fun. In fact Pam and Helen and Gina got 10 out of 10. Thank you Kevin for organising such a fun quiz.

It was then time for Bingo and Lisa called out the numbers. There was a lot of excitement and the winner today was Gina and Chris.

Andrew Wrensch a Qualified Trainer will be starting to provide training on various topics at the Dementia Club UK weekly Carers Group session every Tuesday from 7pm to 8.30pm. The session starts at 7pm for carers to raise and chat generally about any concerns and then the training will start at 7.30pm for 30 minutes followed by questions and answers and at 8pm there will be an opportunity for questions and answers and a further chat on any other matters. The session finishes at 8.30pm.

The first training is on Tuesday 9th February and the topic is – ‘Understanding Distressed behaviour’

For further details to join please email Lisa lisa.rutter@dementiaclubuk.org.uk or call Mobile: 07956858913

Please see some of the list of topics below for your information; (Some topics may take more than one session)

1) Understanding Distressed Behaviour

2) Dementia Awareness (types of Dementia)

3) Infection Prevention and Control

4) Nutrition and Hydration

5) Basic Life Support (theory only) – Delivered by Peter Simaliak

6) Fire Awareness

7) Moving and Handling – Theory only (30 mins for hints and tips or 4 hours for the full subject)

8) Equality and Diversity

9) Mental Health – both learning basics and actual support if people need (Andrew is also happy to do one to one with people in the evenings or weekends if people need support.

10) Mindfulness – Normally 8 weeks programme – a number one choice for people facing stress. Andrew can support stress reduction as well as mindfulness.

11) COSHH (for anyone that needs it) (Control of Substances Hazardous to Health)

12) Stroke Awareness

13) Person Centeredness

Other topics that people might be interested in;

14) VAK test- know how you learn and how you retain information

15) Personality profile (basic personality profile based on the DISC assessment with elements of Myers Briggs

16) First Aid (certified) will need to be done face to face

17) Basic Life Support (certified) is being configured to support online learning, available later this year.

We had 28 members today. Lisa started the Karaoke at 2pm as usual and then at 2.30pm everyone was ready for their chats. Lisa welcomed everyone and informed them that Katie who was going to do the music entertainment today was unfortunately unwell with a migraine. Members were happy to hear however that Lisa organised James Le Bec to do cover. Lisa also reminded them about the training tomorrow at the carers session in the evening. Everyone is very excited about that.

James then started the music entertainment and sang a wonderful selection of songs for 30 minutes which everyone really enjoyed and sang along to. The session then followed with Eon Walters who gave everyone a great workout. Lisa then took over with a fun ‘Family Fortunes’ quiz game and then called out the Bingo numbers. The Bingo winner today was Kevin and Mabel.

Stephen and Brenda two of our members are part of the World Neuroscience innovations forum in London and Volunteer Partners with Alzheimer’s Research UK. They have given us permission to publish on our website their short life story and also their interview with Martin Samuels – a Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School.

You can read Brenda’s journey with dementia and how she became involved in one of the drug trials called the Amaranth drug trial. This sadly didn’t work and Brenda went on to try another drug trial called Etheral which unfortunately also failed. Although these drug trials didn’t work, Brenda and Stephen feel that they are making a contribution to the progress of medical science. Well done to both of them and especially Brenda for being so courageous.