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
Stephanie Lewis from Touchstone's Community Development Service talks about how her mother's dementia impacted on the whole family. I first became aware of Dementia when I studied for counselling back in 2000-2008 however, my first personal experience of this was when my mother was diagnosed in 2005. My father passed away in 1998 and they had been married for nearly 50 years so clearly, they were very close as a
Geraldine, from Touchstone's IAPT team, talks about the role of a Dementia Champion. My name is Geraldine and I am one of the Dementia Champions with Touchstone. I work in the Touchstone IAPT service where we meet people with common problems with mood and mental health such as anxiety and depression and offer a range of treatments including classes, online treatment and face to face therapies. The symptoms we work
Juana Kwok from Touchstone Support Centre talks about being there for a neighbour who's husband is developing dementia. “I’ve seen you around the garden trimming your beautiful flowers.” “I tried not to disturb you.” “Ooh, please do.” “How are you?” “Yes, I am fine, thank you.” “How’s Joe…” “He’s not so good, he’s getting worse, he tends to be more forgetful, he wore his winter clothes on a warm day,
Amina Ditta from the Peer-Led Brokerage Service and Kirklees Advocacy Service talks about sharing knowledge and support when dementia affects a friend's family. After attending an event which delivered the Dementia Awareness session it became very clear to me how this disease carries many misconceptions. I pursued this further by becoming a Dementia Champion. Around the time of this training, my friend Kelly learnt that her mum was presenting “strange
Joe Shortland from Touchstone's Community Support Team discusses the impact of dementia on his family. In 2013 my partner’s father, John, was diagnosed with both Parkinson’s disease and dementia, and sadly he passed away last month from the illness. The last several years had been a very difficult time for all the family to see such an able bodied, intelligent, and kind hearted man, and whose memory and physical health
Continuing a series of personal reflections on the impact of dementia, Sikh Elders Service manager Chernjit Batebajwe talks about supporting a relative living with dementia. I would like to celebrate this week with sharing my experiences with dementia. I supported my relative the age of 86 living on her own every Monday of the week. She was a great cook and came from Uganda. Widowed at very early age she
My dad was diagnosed with vascular dementia in 2007 following a stroke when he had a fall at home. This fall was preventable as dad had just had a knee replacement so his house should have been assessed by social care and then he might have had a handrail fitted on the stairs but information on your rights to access services is just one of the things families struggle with
As part of Dementia Awareness Week, Touchstone (in partnership wit the Reginald Centre and Feel Good Factor) is organising a dementia information event for Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic communities on Thursday 18th May. We'll be at the Reginald Centre on Chapeltown Road in Leeds from 9:30am to 1pm. Join us at this free information event and hear from: Tim Sanders, Integrated Commissioning and Transformation Manager, Dementia, NHS Leeds Clinical