Colleagues across Syncora Care – including the management team – have been taking part in extra training throughout the summer and are now ‘dementia champions’.
Delivered by Alzheimer’s Society, the intensive course covered topics such as end of life care, advanced dementia and distressing behaviours in dementia.
Integrated Lifestyle Planner for the Calico Group, Carla Rathbone, took part in the training. Working closely on the Dovestone Gardens project in her day-to-day role, she found the training ‘helpful and inspiring’.
Carla said: “It was amazing – the passion of the trainers made it really enjoyable. The knowledge I’ve gained about how to treat people and how to spot escalating behaviours will help me in my role in the future”.
She continued: “On a personal level, I’ve also found it really useful. My mum is showing signs of early-stage Alzheimer’s but isn’t yet diagnosed”.
Following this training, new activities focusing on dementia care are being introduced to residents. One of the new activities is music therapy, which starts in September thanks to funding from Music for All.
Sessions will involve playing instruments, 1-1 sessions, group activities and meditation. Delivered by Nigel Clegg from Klok Work Music, our aim is to bring some extra joy into the lives of elderly people living with advanced dementia through their love of music.
As well as intensive training and new activities for the calendar, a group of colleagues and resident’s family members hopped onboard the ‘Dementia Bus’ to gain an understanding of what it’s like to live with dementia through activities and visuals.
Delivered by Training 2 Care UK, The Virtual Dementia Tour is taken by over 200,000 people per year in the UK to help more people understand life with dementia.
For more information, please contact Head of Care, Jo Ashworth on jashworth@calico.org.uk.
