I started working with adults with memory issues in 2016 and it was around that time I noticed changes in my Great Nan Rose. She had always been forgetful and other family members didn't notice the subtle changes but I did. It started with little things like getting people's names wrong. This wasn't uncommon as I come from a large family and there are a lot of names to remember;
Since 2015 Touchstone has been working hard to be a Dementia Friendly organisation. Through the leadership of the Dementia Champions group awareness around Dementia including some practical actions as enabled Touchstone to become more of a dementia friendly organisation. One of the key aims of the Dementia Champions is to ensure there is a consistent approach across all our sites and services. For example a Dementia Friendly Environmental Audit has
Touchstone is committed to becoming Dementia friendly, and in recent months we have been focusing on what changes we can make to make our sites easy for people with dementia to feel relaxed in. This has involved fitting new carpets and brightly coloured toilet seats, which can be helpful for people with dementia, as it is common for a person’s visual perception to be affected and similar coloured floors and
Touchstone staff and volunteers recently had the opportunity to hear the story of a gay asylum seeker from Uganda. To protect her identity, we have not included her name or photograph here. At the time that she was growing up in Uganda, people simply did not talk about being gay, because it could cost your life. She did at a young age confide in one of her family members, but
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1p_W9pKCKn8&feature=youtu.be
People from West Yorkshire’s BME communities with mental health concerns feel ignored and struggle to find a voice, according to charity Touchstone. The mental health charity recently ran two consultation events with BME service users as part of a national independent review of the Mental Health Act. Feedback from participants at the events in Leeds and Bradford suggested that some BME people also feel that racism is a key factor
Vanysha and Adriana from the Mentally Healthy Leeds team use the stress bucket model as a visual aid, to show how we each have limited capacity for everyday stress factors, and that capacity may be different, depending on our life circumstances. This year, Mental Health Awareness Week (14th-20th May) is focussed on the theme of stress: why it happens, how we deal with it, how we can reduce it. Mentally
Nazia from Better in Kirklees talks about living and working with asthma. Organised by the Global Initiative for Asthma, May 1st marks World Asthma Day 2018. It is a day committed to improve asthma awareness and care around the world, with this year marking its 20th anniversary. According to the World Health Organisation, 300 million people suffer from asthma globally, whilst it's the most common chronic disease that children get diagnosed with. In the UK,
Trying to find clear information on M.E. (myalgic encephalomyelitis) can be pretty tricky. There are many different opinions about what it is, who has it, what causes it and how (or if) it can be treated. It is also often referred to as CFS (chronic fatigue syndrome), though not everyone agrees that the two terms should be interchangeable. According to the ME Association’s fact sheet: M.E. is classified by the
International Dance Day falls on the 29th March each year. Each year prominent figures from the world of dance are asked to talk about why dance matters on a global and social level. Here are some of this year’s messages. Salia Sanou from Burkina Faso says: “…whether we like it or not, whether we recognize it or not, we all share, whatever the colour of our skin, whatever our origins,