Thursday 1 June 2017

Dementia Carer voices May-June Newsletter is now Available to read

Dementia Awareness Week 2017 is coming up #DAW2017

Dementia Awareness Week 2017 is next week, from 28th May to 4th June. To mark the occasion and to raise awareness of dementia, DCV will be holding a series of events and activities.
We will aim to publish one post each day on our blog to mark Dementia Awareness Week and keep you up to date on our work. Please follow these posts on our blog. #DAW2017

DCV tours the Western Isles for Dementia Awareness Week 2017

Dementia Carer Voices’ Project Engagement Lead, Tommy Whitelaw, will be holding a series of talks in conjunction with NHS Western Isles from 1st June to 3rd June. The talks will coincide with Dementia Awareness Week 2017 and are aimed at raising awareness for people with dementia and their carers.


We will be running daily posts about Tommy’s tour. You can keep updated on the tour and see all the details of Tommy’s talks and events on our blog.

 

Project Engagement Lead, Tommy Whitelaw, meets the First Minister

Dementia Carer Voices Project Engagement Lead, Tommy Whitelaw, met with the First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, in the Scottish Parliament on the 26th April. It was a great honour and an opportunity to discuss the DCV project and share the story of the people we’ve met and pledges we’ve received.

DCV attend Focus on Dementia Conference

On the 10th May, ALLIANCE Director, Irene Oldfather, Project Engagement Lead, Tommy Whitelaw and Policy and Information Intern William Griffiths attended Focus on Dementia’s conference at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Glasgow.
Tommy and William manned our stand and engaged with lots of people about the work of Dementia Carer Voices and the ALLIANCE. We were visited there by, among many others, Tom McCarthy from Health Improvement Scotland and the team from Hatton Lea Care Home that Tommy visited last month.
We brought the DCV pledge tree on which people wrote reflections about what caring a person with dementia means to them. Please see the blog for some of the inspiring pledges we received on the day.
Irene spoke at the ‘on the couch’ session about the importance of person centred care, and shared some reflections on what barriers carers face in providing high quality care.
It was a good day, and great to meet many unpaid carers, people with dementia and policy professionals on the day.
Take some time to read the inspiring pledges here.

ALLIANCE Director, Irene Oldfather, to speak at BSG Scotland Conference


British Society of Gerontology Scotland Networking Seminar are organising a conference at Glasgow Caledonian University 12.00 – 16.30 Wednesday 14th June, 2017.
The conference will discuss: Are we ready to integrate health and social care?
Alliance Director, Irene Oldfather, who has been asked to present at the conference, will address her talk at ensuring person centred approaches in the integrated health and social care environment

Glasgow Housing Association and #WMTY17

This month one of our guest blogs came from Gregory Hill-O`Connor, Our Voice Co-ordinator at the Alliance. Greg tells us about his visit to Glasgow Housing Association and What Matters to You Day.

“It Isn’t Joy in Work; Joy IS the Work” – Guest Blog

Our other guest blog this month came from Hans Hartung from NHSAA. He talks about the power and importance of connectedness in experiencing joy in your work. Linking nicely with #WMTY17

@CombinedNHS Launch What Matters To You Pledge Trees

A big thank you to Maria Nelligan @Nell1Maria – Director of Nursing and Quality, Julie Anne Murray @JulieAnneM2016, Colin Burgess @StaffsOatcakes and all at @CombinedNHS  Trust for inviting Tommy to speak at their Annual Conference and help launch initially 25 what matters to you pledge trees across all areas of the trust and community.
Maria and Julie Anne helped support 4 talks at Keele University with Tommy and Colin and invited Tommy to speak at the trust conference.
The day was truly inspiring. We are looking forward to watching the trees grow and to returning later this year to meet the teams again, to capture the story of pledges, what matters to staff and what matters to people across the trust areas.
After the morning sessions, the conference broke out to a safari quick fire 15 minutes sessions, sharing ideas then moving on to the next table.

North West Non-Medical Prescribers Pledge to Make a Difference

Thanks to David Reddy, Admin and Clerical Support Officer the Association of Non-Medical Prescribers for kindly inviting Tommy to speak at their Annual Conference at the AJ Bell Stadium in Salford on April 25th 2017.

Also, a big thanks to Dr Debbie Robertson, of Chester University, to suggest Tommy as one of the speakers.
 

Over 200 delegates from across the North West attended and made personal pledges that you can read below.

Future DCV events

Keep up-to-date with events DCV are attending over the next month. To find out more, see our “Get Involved” page over on our blog.

ALLIANCE Conference - Change: The Health and Social Care Integration event


Join the ALLIANCE, our members and partners at our 2017 annual conference on the 30th May. It will be focused on integration and change. What kind of change is needed? Where are the examples of change happening for the good? Is it happening fast enough in health and social care? What are the factors that drive the kind of change that makes a positive difference to people’s lives? How can we influence change?
The event will focus on putting people firmly at the centre of decision making and will cover broad areas that affect people’s lives. The programme and venue will be designed around different zones reflecting many of the key issues that most affect the lives of people who live with long term conditions, disabled people and unpaid carers.
Have a look at our conference agenda. Download your booking form here or call 0141 404 0231 to get support to fill in your form.

Meet the team at upcoming conferences and events

June will be a busy month for the DCV team. We are attending several events and conferences. In addition to Tommy’s tour of the Western Isles and Irene’s speech at Caledonian University, we will be attending:
We will also be showing a poster displaying our work at the Alzheimer’s Scotland and NHS Scotland Conferences.

Connect with Dementia Carer Voices

There are many ways to connect with Dementia Carer Voices. Last month we launched our Facebook page, we can be reached on Twitter or through email at dementiacarervoices@alliance-scotland.org.uk. Do get in touch with any questions about our upcoming talks or events, if you want to share a blog with us or just to say hi. 

What matters to you day - 6 June 2017

What Matter To You day is on the 6th June this year. Find out more information over on the #wmty17 website and see how you can get involved, how to order free resources and what activities will be taking place.
The ‘What matters to you?’ team have been redeveloping the resources, and are pleased to let you know that these are now available.
Connect through:
·         Facebook page – https://www.facebook.com/whatmatters2you/ 
·         Twitter - @WMTYScot > and #wmty17
·         Email - hcis.personcentredscot@nhs.net
Dementia Carer Voices also has What Matters to You Case Studies live on our blog. 

Creative Competition 2017

DCV’s colleagues at The Health and Social Care Academy are running their third annual Creative Competition. This year’s theme is on change and they are partnering with Scottish Recovery NetworkWrite to RecoveryReachout with Arts in Mind and Mind Waves.
They are seeking entrants on the following:
  • What you need think needs to change in Scotland to keep us living well?
  • What you do to stay healthy and well?
  • What one thing you would change where you live to keep you well?
There are five categories; poetry, short story, film, photography and arts and crafts and the competition will run till Wednesday 19th July.
This year’s partnership with Write to Recovery means that entrants to the poetry and short story category can upload their submission direct to the Write to Recovery site.

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