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We would like to thank Kevin Ziants to chaired this evening Carer’s meeting

22 participants participated in a productive 1 1/2 hours session led by Kevin Ziants. In attendance was Andrew from a Care Home in Barnet and Margaret Coyle, Admiral Nurse, Barnet, Enfield and Haringey Mental Health NHS Trust.

The first hour was taken up discussing the vaccine. What was evident there were many inconsistencies on how this is applied. In some instances, carers are included with their cared for person and others where they are treated as separate entities. The advice given was to keep contacting your GP explaining your position. Kevin provided link:

https://www.omnicalculator.com/health/vaccine-queue-uk which gives an indicator of currently when vaccine is due for individuals.

Andrew stated vaccines have been offered to all staff and residents of his care home. Some have declined for personal reasons and they cannot be forced to take it. This has proved a major challenge.

Other issues discussed was how to apply for a blue badge , how to register as a carer and how to claim attendance and carers allowance. Andrew and Margaret were able to offer valuable guidance.

The general stress of being a Carer was raised. Margaret stated to try not to rationalise the irrational and value the power of the now when engaging with your loved one. Most of all be kind to yourself especially when matters do not go the way you would like.

All participants contributed in some way and were able to take something away from the session.

We had 21 members today and some new members. Lisa welcomed everyone and also gave an update about her meeting at the council in the evening. She told members that she was going to speak at Council to highlight that unpaid carers who look after over 80 year olds are not on the Government priority order list for vaccination and should be at the top of the list with care homes. Members were very pleased to hear that and wished Lisa well.

Members were happy chatting as usual and it was lovely to see one of the new members who also introduced her granddaughter Amelia who was also then introduced to Helen’s granddaughter Ava. It was also lovely to watch members pets who are very entertaining. Helen also introduced a new game she recently bought called ‘Intelligent Magnetic Building Blocks set’ which gives options to build various shapes.

Jo, Grazia and Enzo also joined today and Jo announced that it was Enzo’s 90th birthday on Friday. Lisa therefore asked members to all sing Happy Birthday and Lisa played the Happy Birthday song.

It was now 3pm and Lisa & Mark started the Karaoke session. Everyone always look forward to the new Tuesday Karaoke session and happy to hear their song requests.

Rachel was then ready to start the exercises and today she asked members from last week to bring scarves or handkerchiefs and hats which are used as part of her exercise routines to popular music. Everyone enjoys the exercises with Rachel especially the line dancing at the end.

Lisa then continued with a couple of quick quizzes and then called out the Bingo numbers. Lisa played 2 games today as yesterday was missed. The winners were – Karin. Zena and Fulvia

We had 26 members today. Lisa welcomed some new members and then started the Karaoke session at 2pm. The chat session then started at 2.30pm and Lisa welcomed everyone and introduced the new members. Everyone enjoyed their chat and were ready for their music entertainment when Katie Paine joined. Katie did something slightly different today. She sang various theme songs and asked members to jot down on a piece of paper which film the song was from. Everyone enjoyed singing along and at the end Lisa unmuted everyone and Katie asked them to shout out the answers. Next week Katie will be doing Scotland them songs for Burns Night and may be members would like to wear some Tartan clothes.

Eon was then ready to start as soon as Katie finished and as usual everyone enjoys the exercises with Eon and gave great feedback at the end.

As Lisa had to leave promptly at 4pm to take her dad to have his Covid vaccination, Kevin one of the carers had prepared a picture quiz of different people to name. Everyone did very well and this followed with another chat.

Thank you to Kevin for stepping in and doing a quiz.

We had 26 members today. It was also good to see our volunteers Melvyn and Annette and also Andrew from the Church in New Barnet. The Karaoke session went well and then the chat session followed until 3pm when our music entertainer James le Bec and his partner Joy joined us. James was asked if he could play an Elvis song today as one of the members had an Elvis T Shirt on. James was happy to oblige and also sang a few other favourites before starting the music quiz. The music quiz is so popular and everyone enjoys it especially as the challenge each week is to beat the previous week score. The music quiz winners were Helen, Pam and Kevin.

Richard Kravetz then joined us to start the chair Yoga exercises. Richard always makes exercising fun. Richard then follows on with his quiz questions and today he chose 5 questions of events in 2020 and the 5 other questions were about ‘cheese’. The quiz winners were Pam and John who won a pretend prize of a – ‘Gordon’s Gin vaccine’ which made everyone laugh.

Lisa then called out the Bingo numbers and to everyone’s surprise after 2 minutes, Stephen and Brenda called out Bingo. It was so quick, everyone wanted a second game. The second winner was then Helen and Chrystalla and Helen’s granddaughter Ava.

We had 20 members this evening. Lisa welcomed everyone and started the meeting.

Lisa mentioned first about recent WhatsApp messages received about changes of their Terms and Conditions. Mark mentioned that their change of terms meant that they would have the opportunity to trawl peoples messages and watch you whilst you are browsing and sell your details. Lisa then mentioned that she would not be accepting the new terms and as such will no longer be using WhatsApp and everyone should also be careful. The worry some members had was if perhaps they would be hacked.

Various discussions then continued and all members were very happy to be able to raise their individual concerns and discuss the difficulties and challenges. This was really nice as this is the whole point of the carers group meeting to be able to talk freely and feel that you are not alone.

We had 25 members today. Lisa welcomed members and everyone enjoyed having their chat. These difficult times has proved how essential it is for people to be able to communicate. Feedback from members are so grateful for having this opportunity.

The Lisa & mark Karaoke Show then started at 3pm and Lisa had a few song requests today which she played and everyone enjoyed. One of the carers Helen also had her granddaughter Ava again who is also enjoying the sessions. She is so sweet and everyone loved to see her.

Rachel the exercise instructor was then ready to start after the Karaoke session. Rachel is still very new but her style of workout has shone through to members and they love it. Her choice of music is very motivational and getting members to learn some new routines and a bit of salsa is great.

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

We had 24 members today. Lisa started the session with the 2pm Karaoke which everyone enjoyed and then at 2.30pm it was time for the chat session. Members were chatting about vaccines and the various difficulties and challenges getting an appointment.

Lisa welcomed everyone and was a pleasure today to also see Ava, Helen’s granddaughter who also enjoyed singing along and dancing to some of the songs during the session. It was also good to see the 2 care homes join – Carlton Court care home and Aarundale Manor care home.

Katie our music entertainer then joined 10 minutes before starting and was already engaged chatting with members which was really nice. Katie Paine was excited to use her new speaker especially after last week when her speaker broke. The new speaker worked perfectly and Katie was great as usual.

Eon Walters our exercise professional was then ready to start and as usual had everyone working out well to popular music.

The quiz today was taken by one of the carers – Kevin. He had prepared a picture quiz showing 10 London landmarks and members had to name them. Kevin was made co-host and was therefore able to take this part of the session. Although some landmarks were easy to identify, Kevin explained that this was also to give those we care for the opportunity to take part. Everyone enjoyed the quiz and Lisa thanked Kevin. Members also joined to thank Kevin. The prize for the winners (jokingly) was lunch at The London Dungeon.

Lisa then continued with reading a joke and then called out the Bingo numbers. The winner was Laurie Porter and as this was his 3rd win – he is now the Game 7 winner. Laurie announced however that he didn’t want any gift and wanted to give his gift to Mark who is our technical assistant making sure the session runs smoothly. Lisa thanked Laurie for his kind thought and Mark was also very grateful. A new Bingo game will now start tomorrow.

We had 22 members today. Lisa started the Karaoke session at 2pm and then the chat session started at 2.30pm. James Le Bec and Joy then joined us just before 3pm and wished everyone best wishes for a happy new year. Lisa informed James that there was a birthday today. It was Frances’s 88th birthday and everyone sang happy birthday to her. It was lovely to see Frances wearing a novelty birthday cake hat which was amusing. James sang a couple of Frances’s favourite songs and then he sang a Gerry and the Pacemakers song as a tribute as he recently passed away. James also informed everyone that he used to work together with Gerry. James then started the music quiz. Today’s quiz was about Television which was very interesting. The winners of the quiz were Helen and Keren with 8 out of 10. James then continues with asking members to name 10 famous names starting with the letter R. Everyone loves shouting out the answers. James finished off getting everyone to sing and move to ‘Drunken Sailor’

The session then continued with Rachel doing the exercises today as Richard was away. Rachel showed everyone some very good exercises and made them work out all parts of their body to some good music which was very motivating. In fact the cool down stretch was like Bollywood dancing.

Lisa then continued with telling everyone a joke and then doing a quiz looking back to 2020 one last time about TV films. Lisa then called out the Bingo numbers and the winner today was Laurie Porter again.

We had 23 members this evening. Lisa welcomed everyone giving best wishes for the New year and also welcomed Eshwan Seedoyal – Barnet Memory Service Team Leader and also welcomed Andrew Wrench – Community Development Manager at Carlton Court Care Home. Lisa opened the meeting to talk about the recent announcement of National lockdown and also about people’s concerns about receiving vaccinations. Lisa asked Eshwan and Andrew to first give everyone an update.

Andrew reported that Lateral Flow tests were now being done for care staff every morning and they were using the Hair Salon as a laboratory testing room. He also confirmed that nearly all the residents now have had their first vaccine. Staff are still also having a PCR test twice a week.

Eshwan reported that some of the staff contracted Covid but they were still managing and were being very careful. Eshwan said that this second Covid wave was not good. They are only now dealing with emergencies.

Lisa then opened the meeting to members and they asked various questions to Andrew and Eshwan. There were other discussions about personal issues and challenges and this led to a discussion about Lasting Powers of Attorney ‘LPA’ and how important it is to have a financial one and a health one. Lisa explained to everyone how she has completed her LPAs online on the Government website and explained what was required. Everyone was very pleased to learn about this.

Before the meeting closed, Lisa then asked Andrew whether he would be happy to do an informal training at our group meeting for 30 minutes. One of the subjects suggested was about how to deal with challenging behaviour. Andrew said that he would be very interested and will discuss this further with Lisa.

Lisa thanked Andrew and Eshwan and everyone also thanked Lisa and for this interesting and informative meeting.

We had 23 members today and we also had some new members join and Lisa made sure she introduced them. Everyone was eager to talk about the vaccines as some members already had their vaccines but some were still waiting. Lisa informed everyone that they should be more persistent with their GP surgeries to make sure that they have been added to the list to get a call. Lisa had to help with one of the members today who was having problems.

At 3pm Lisa and Mark then started the Karaoke session and there were a few requests today. Everyone enjoyed the singalong. The session then followed with a new exercise instructor today Rachel Karbaron. Lisa and all the members welcomed her and in fact Rachel’s parents were also present as new members. Rachel said a few words about herself and then introduced various exercises to some popular music which everyone enjoyed. Rachel also showed everyone some very simple steps and movements to some salsa and line dancing. Everyone’s feedback at the end was very positive and thanked Rachel. There was a surprise during the exercise session when one of Rachel’s dogs just suddenly shot past barking very loudly which made everyone laugh.

Lisa then continued with the session reading a joke and then had another 2020 quiz about Royal Family events. Lisa asked everyone to shout out the answers which they enjoyed doing. Lisa then called out the Bingo numbers and today’s winner was Laurie Porter.