Tagged / dementia

NEW BUDI Orchestra Coming Soon!

BU research

Do you know someone living with dementia in Dorset who likes music?

If so, BUDI would like to invite the person with dementia and their carer to become part of a new BUDI Orchestra starting this January 2015. We would like them to share their musical talents and take part in a music evaluation hosted by BUDI and professional musicians.

We hope to evaluate the effects of a novel music initiative on their daily lives. They will have the opportunity to learn a new instrument, sing, or showcase their existing musical talents to their peers.

No previous musical experience is necessary, we’re looking for people who are willing to come along and ‘give it a go’!

For further information, please contact: Laura Reynolds on 01202 962546, or email: lreynolds@bournemouth.ac.uk.

Please disseminate this notice to anyone who you think may be interested in the project. A PDF flyer can be provided – please email: lreynolds@bournemouth.ac.uk.

The Grange School visits Bournemouth University Dementia Institute

On 9th December Bournemouth University Dementia Institute (BUDI) were delighted to welcome Year 12 Health and Social Care students from The Grange School in Christchurch. Putting our local partnership working into practice, the students took part in a Dementia Friends session and learnt about some of BUDI’s recent projects, including the Living Well with Dementia video and the BUDI Orchestra. We hope that the student’s learning will translate positively into their future practice, and were pleased to see that their feedback forms stated they will take the following actions as a result of the session:

• “Help people with dementia if I see them struggling”
• “Correct people when they say dementia sufferer”
• ”Help people to understand dementia”
• “Be more patient”

Dementia Friends sessions are part of a national initiative by the Alzheimer’s Society to raise awareness of dementia within our local communities. The sessions are designed to help people learn more about what it’s like to live with dementia so that those affected by the condition can feel included in their local community. BUDI run regular Dementia Friends sessions, if you would like to find out more please look out for further details on the BUDI website in 2015.

Dr Michelle Heward and Dr Ahmed Romouzy Ali

Thank You from the BUDI Orchestra

Last Friday (12/12/14), the BUDI Orchestra celebrated this festive season with a Christmas Carol Concert in the Atrium, Talbot Campus. They performed classics such as, ‘Jingle Bells’, ‘White Christmas’ and a very moving rendition of ‘Winter Wonderland’. The event was a great success and thoroughly enjoyed by both performers and spectators alike.

BUDI would like to extend a huge THANK YOU to everyone that attended the concert, with extra thanks to all of the staff who gave their support so the morning could run so smoothly.

We will be starting a new orchestral group in the New Year. If you know someone living with dementia that might enjoy getting involved with the group, please contact me for further information (lreynolds@bournemouth.ac.uk).

Merry Christmas!

BUDI Orchestra Christmas Concert

BUDI Orchestra Christmas Concert

Join us as we celebrate this festive season with classics such as ‘White Christmas’ and ‘Jingle Bells’ performed by members of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, and local people with dementia and their carers.

When? Friday, 12th December 2014, 11am – 12noon.

Where? The Atrium (by Starbucks), Poole House, Talbot Campus.

We’d love to see you there!

For more information about this event, please contact: lreynolds@bournemouth.ac.uk.

The BUDI Orchestra rehearsing.

The BUDI Orchestra during their final rehearsal.

 

Social Media and Dementia: Raising Awareness

The use of video within social media (such as YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter) is providing researchers with novel ways of disseminating the findings of research. This is inspiring researchers to think outside of traditional academic approaches, and enabling research to extend to new and wide-ranging audiences. This paper focuses on the Living Well with Dementia project, which was designed to utilise video to raise awareness and challenge gaps in perceptions and understanding of dementia. The project involved filming and disseminating a video featuring people with dementia and carers talking about what it means to live well with dementia. Obtaining the views of people with dementia and carers was considered crucial in terms of portraying the real-life experiences of living with dementia, and enabling these often marginalised voices to be heard. Participants were asked ‘what is your experience of living with dementia?’ and in their responses drew upon diagnosis, treatment, lifestyle, social activities and family relationships. The finished video was disseminated through YouTube. After viewing the video, members of the public were invited to complete a short survey to establish whether watching the video challenged their understanding of dementia. This paper showcases the Living Well with Dementia video, as well as exploring the ethical and practical challenges of capturing the experiences of people with dementia on video. Preliminary results from the survey are also presented, in order to explore the role of video within social media as a method to raise awareness and challenge gaps in perceptions and understanding of dementia.

Facilitated by: Dr Michelle Heward & Dr James Palfreman-Kay

Wednesday 10th December 2014 10:00-11:00
Student Hall, Talbot House, Talbot Campus

To book your place, please e-mail Organisational Development od@bournemouth.ac.uk

Become a ‘Dementia Friend’

Uncategorized

People with dementia get by with a little help from their friends, and anybody can become a Dementia Friend. It’s just about understanding a bit more about dementia and the small things you can do to help people with the condition. People with dementia want to carry on going about their daily lives and feeling included in their local community, but they sometimes need a helping hand to do so. Dementia Friends learn a little bit about what it’s like to live with dementia and turns that understanding into action. This could be helping someone find the right bus or being patient in a till queue if someone with dementia is taking longer to pay. Every action counts. Being a Dementia Friend isn’t about volunteering or fundraising (though you can do that too if you want). Just come along to this session to become a friend and get a simple introduction to Dementia, and how you can help.

Facilitated by: Dr Ahmed Romouzy Ali & Dr Michelle Heward

Tuesday 9th December 2014 10:00-11:00
EB303, Executive Business Centre, Lansdowne Campus

To book your place please visit: https://staffintranet.bournemouth.ac.uk/workingatbu/staffdevelopmentandengagement/staffengagement/disabilityhistorymonth2014/dementiafriendssession/

BUDI talks museums and dementia at AHSW Annual Conference

Last week I was invited to represent Bournemouth University Dementia Institute (BUDI) at the 9th Arts and Health South West (AHSW) Annual Conference held in Taunton. This was a great opportunity for me to talk about the Museum of Modern Art’s (MOMA’s) approach to involving people affected by dementia within their gallery space, as showcased in the MOMA Workshops held in May 2014 . I also discussed some of the work that local Dorset museums are undertaking to involve people affected by dementia, and ways to evaluate such activities.

The conference showcased a wide variety of innovative arts based projects, including: the therapeutic purposes of creative writing, doodling, and music and health from Live Music Now. The positive health impacts of arts based activities for a range of participants were highlighted in several presentations throughout the day.

Fiona Kelly represents BUDI at an international dementia conference in Sweden

BU research, Uncategorized

On 15th October, I presented at a three-day conference at Linkoping University in Sweden on Life with Dementia 2014: Relations. There were two strands to the conference: communication and citizenship and I predominantly attended the citizenship parallel sessions as this is where I am currently focused. The conference was attended by delegates from universities in Sweden, the UK, Norway, Japan, Canada and USA, all with an interest in working and campaigning to promote the rights and inclusion of people with dementia as equal citizens or partners in interaction. In the citizenship strand, there were presentations and key notes with questions and ideas on what citizenship and rights means in the context of people with dementia, with a particular challenge of what it means for people with more severe cognitive impairment. Throughout the conference, we heard, or spoke, about interdependence, human capabilities, opportunities rather than support, inclusive research methods, co-researching, parity of participation and transformative strategies to reduce social injustice. At the end of the conference, there was a separate meeting to work on capturing the enthusiasm and commitment to ensuring people with dementia remain equal citizens, so we formed the ‘citizenship and dementia international research network’, with a view to collaborating on writing, presenting at conferences, campaigning and working on research ideas. Anyone interested in hearing more, please get in touch fkelly@bournemouth.ac.uk

First Wessex Dementia Conference

BU research, Research themes

Tuesday 14 October saw the first Wessex Dementia conference hosted by Public Health England, NHS Wessex CSN and The Wessex AHSN. The turnout was much larger than expected demonstrating the increase in interest, enthusiasm and energy surrounding the dementia field. The timeline in the image attached shows just a small selection of projects about dementia that are happening in our region across the dementia timeline; that is from pre-diagnosis, diagnosis, post-diagnostic support to end of life care. BUDI’s work spans this care spectrum but only a handful of our projects are on this timelines as at BU alone we have been involved in 50 dementia projects in the last 2 years (we presented on our Orchestra project with the BSO, the 10 agency partnership project on Dementia Friendly Communities in Dorset we were part of, and the NHS Dorset Memory Advisory service we evaluated as well as having a very popular stand; orange stress balls proved to be particularly popular for our hard working clinical and practice colleagues!)  Taken together with the work of our colleagues from the voluntary, statutory and private sectors alongside our academic colleagues based at other Wessex Universities there is now a critical mass of work going on in our region which bodes well for those who might be affected by dementia in the future in Wessex but also for those currently living with dementia who are participating and hopefully benefiting from the groundswell of commitment to improving not just the diagnostic rate in our region (which two years ago was one of the lowest in the country) but to providing high quality support and services.

£1million in digital healthcare innovation available from Creative England

Funding opportunities

This fund is designed to stimulate creative and digital innovation in This UK healthcare.
Are you working with or know of  small creative and digital businesses (SMEs) with innovative concepts or prototypes using digital technology to improve patient care and health services?
These maybe in areas such as dementia, social care, and cardiovascular and medication management.
The South West is one of the first three regions to benefit from this funding opportunity.
Key information:
  • 5 x £50,000 investments will be made.
  • Companies must be based in the North, Midlands or South West.
  • Examples of projects could be improving quality of care; caring for people with dementia; supporting people with long-term conditions; and data visualisation.
  • Mobile apps, development of a new game for tablet or mobile are also eligible.

Applications will be assessed on a rolling basis and the fund will close on 31 October 2014.

More information can be found here.

Alternatively please feel free to contact

Jayne Codling – Knowledge Exchange Adviser

Ext 61215 jcodling@bournemouth.ac.uk

Making a difference: BUDI donates percussion instruments to Alzheimer’s Society

In May 2014, BUDI held a cake sale to raise money for the Alzheimer’s Society Dementia Awareness Week. BUDI decided to use the monies to make a difference within the local community, by donating a set of percussion instruments to each of the Alzheimer’s Society ‘Sing for the Brain Groups’ in Dorset.

Dr Michelle Heward and Michelle O'Brien from BUDI present the percussion instruments to Yvonne Rogers from the Alzheimer's Society

‘Singing for the Brain’ involves people with dementia and their carers taking part in structured group sessions that use music to encourage communication and participation and include opportunities to talk to other people. Each session includes a range of activities including vocal warm-up and singing a variety of familiar and new songs. There are eight ‘Singing for the Brain Groups’ in Dorset, which run in Blandford, Christchurch, Dorchester, Gillingham, Portland, Sherborne, Westbourne and Weymouth.

Percussion instruments presented by BUDI to the Alzheimer's Society

To find out more about the ‘Sing for the Brain Groups’ in Dorset, please call the Alzheimer’s Society on: 01202 716393 or email: dorset@alzheimers.org.uk.

BUDI would like to thank everyone that donated to this worthy cause, and SUBU and the BU Baking Society for their support with this event.

Making a Difference with Music

BU research, Festival of Learning, Fusion

I have to admit I was not having the best of weeks but being part of the BUDI Orchestra’s penultimate rehearsal yesterday was, as one of the participants said to me at the end the session, ‘better than therapy’. 

Some of the highlights for me of this week’s session were a couple celebrating their 59th wedding anniversary by bringing chocolates and biscuits to share with their orchestra friends and telling me this session was the ideal way to celebrate this pretty remarkable period of marriage; another couple who had told me they have been having difficulties communicating reaching out simultaneously for one another’s hands when Moon River was playing; and having people with dementia and their carers tell me that attending this group is the highlight of their week, indeed that they need no persuasion to get out of bed knowing they have their music group to come along to; and to hear that they consider the members of the group their friends. This all demonstrates the true achievement of the BSO musicians, BU students and my team members in rising to the deceptively simple challenge I set for this project: to create an atmosphere that was welcoming, fun, promoted equality between everyone, and where having dementia was not to be the guiding factor, rather for everyone to be part of a ‘normal’ group where people would learn and work together. And they have achieved this in spades!

Seeing for myself the progress and development in those with dementia who have participated over a 9 week period makes this project worthwhile. For example a man, who on week one who was having trouble remembering how to play his double bass (even though he didn’t need much encouragement to teach me some basic notes), now jamming with the professional musicians; how another man, who brought his mouth organ to the first session and began to recall how to play, now plays all the pieces by ear and is smiling from ear to ear after the session ends. Seeing the relaxation and concentration on participants’ faces who had been anxious about first week, but who are completely in the moment and whose verbal communication skills have, to me, taken an absolute upturn, and who now chat easily and at length during the break and at the session end. For example, one participant invited me to their previous home if I was ever passing, it doesn’t matter that they live in Dorset now and were talking about their old address, the important thing is they have increased their sense of social confidence and are reaching out and connecting with others, something that is, all too often, sadly lost by others failing to accommodate the communication needs of those with dementia.

 Have a look yourself at one of the items that will be performed by the BSO and BUDI Orchestra at the Winton life centre on Saturday 14 June, 11am, as part of the BU Festival of Learning programme. I’ve already shown this  to whomever I met yesterday afternoon, and the surprise on colleagues’ faces when they understood that this was a group of people with dementia who had only been rehearsing for 9 weeks and the majority of whom had never played an instrument before was fun to see! Moving from playing, to singing to body percussion in one piece is challenging and demonstrates the development in learning the musicians have enabled over the sessions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oscti3517ww

 To me, this project is a way to challenge the misconceptions and myths people hold about people with dementia not being able to learn and participate to a high level. I wish I could bottle the benefits that I observed in our participants, and, actually, the benefits that I have gained from being a small part of a truly special group that has created an amazing sense of community with acceptance, fun and friendship at its core.

 The group are already feeling the loss of these sessions as they know they only have one more rehearsal and then the performance and then our FIF funding stops. Yet this is what I would say is true impact: yes, we have the papers and other academic impact values, and we will seek to publish after the sessions end and the follow up period data is collected, but to see the development in how the professional musicians work with those with dementia, most who in the main had not worked with people with dementia before and their absolute engagement and commitment to creating a positive experience for the group; to see how our students have grown in confidence, and the relationships they have built with individuals with dementia is fantastic and demonstrates the impact of learning together. But most of all, to hear about, and see first-hand, the pleasure and benefits for those living with dementia and their carers makes this the best project I’ve ever had the pleasure of being part of, and if anyone has ideas about finding ways to fund this project beyond its research parameters as an on-going community engagement project, please do let me know!

MoMA lead the way – what does this mean for the UK?

BU research, Fusion, Training

BUDI were delighted to welcome colleagues from the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York to Bournemouth University from 20-23rd May 2014, thanks to Fusion Investment Fund Mobility Strand Funding. Our local partnership working was put into practice to host international workshop leaders attended by participants near and far. MoMA’s specially trained Museum Educators ran two workshops in which they shared their successful model and established approach for making their services dementia-friendly (validated via evaluation from New York University). These workshops showcased their innovative style of education delivery, and provided attendees with an opportunity to hear the success of their approach and view a practical demonstration in a gallery or museum space.

 On 21st May 2014, 15 members of BU Staff and PhD Students took part in a free workshop at Talbot Campus and in the Atrium Art Gallery. This was followed on the 22nd May 2014 with a second workshop at Poole Museum which was attended by 40 participants currently working in museums, art galleries and the wider heritage sector, from as near as Poole and as far as Paris. During this workshop participants learnt how they could implement these approaches within their individual organisations. Participant’s fed back how useful they found the workshop:

  • It was a really good insight into what it’s like to provide for people with dementia. It was great to spend time looking at the paintings in the museum in a new way.
  • I will adopt my art gallery sessions to follow many of MoMA’s techniques.
  • I found the workshop both enjoyable and constructive and hope BUDI will run others on related topics.
  • Very well facilitated, clear well structured presentations. Very useful for my professional work.

We look forward to seeing how the participant’s learning translates into their future practice, and the wider impact of this approach within museums, art galleries and the heritage sector in the UK. We would also like to thank Poole Museum for kindly providing the venue and refreshments for the second workshop.

Michelle Heward