Our September meeting comes a week late due to our summer holidays! The meeting was equally full of sunshine and laughter. We were able to catch up informally and able to offer peer support on LPA and other preparations that some members have knowledge on and others are due to start. The months meeting established the strengths of peer support, one member voiced:
‘I’m here for me, and everyone else is here for me too.’ A sentiment that the group all emphasised.
Our July meeting was a lovely catch up with friends – we have been able to tie up all the loose ends of our Dementia Enquirers Project ‘Does dementia testing need testing?’ and it has been sent off to an independent report writer to put all our hard work together! A very exciting time for us and we can’t wait to see the finished report.
Sadly our DEEP event which we should have been celebrating this month, has had to be rearranged due to COVID but we are looking forward to the rescheduled event. Members have also been discussing making financial arrangements and end of life decisions with each other due to some of our newer members seeking peer support and advice.
“There really is nothing like learning from lived experience and peer support.”
Brilliant day with members of our The Beth Johnson Foundation peer support group at Blackpool illuminations.
We all particularly enjoyed the Fish & Chips together!
Sadly we didn’t quite manage to use buckets and spades, just a little too cold, maybe next time! 🎠⛱
Members of The Beth Johnson Foundation peer support group met with members of Dandelion Stoke CiC – Daffodils group members at The Goods Yard who are currently holding the British Ceramics Biennial event. Members of both groups enjoyed talking about the project that we had jointly completed.
The project involved taking photos of areas in Stoke-on-Trent that had meaning to them. We all really enjoyed chatting together about the photos, Later in the day we attempted to make plates some of us not so good! A thoroughly enjoyable day hopefully more joint work to come.
September is #WorldAlzheimersMonthDue to Dementia Action Week not taking place this year, different organisations are getting together to showcase what’s going on in #StokeonTrent to support people living with dementia and their families. Come along to see us and have a chat at Hanley Market on the 22nd September and Longton Market on the 24th September between 10am – 2pm, see you there!
Brilliant event at Longton, Stoke-on-Trent Market promoting services available for people living with dementia available in Stoke-on-Trent and #NorthStaffordshire.The Beth Johnson Foundation Dementia Advocacy have been providing dementia advocacy for 21 years and we were pleased to be present at Longton Market!
Thank you to everyone who came to see us – if you need any more information please contact us via messenger or on 07961752111 / betty.machin@bjf.org.uk
Our peer support group members have had a busy few weeks working alongside Keele university students. On the 19th and 26th of February 2021 we were joined by 17 first year medical students over 4 meetings in the 2 days. Each member of BJF peer support group spoke about their personal dementia pathway some spanning 10 years, some just starting out, and had questions from the students after each pathway. The meeting was very interesting and valuable for both the future doctors and our members, the students fed back at the end of each session;
We are so honoured and proud to share our pathways with future doctors, explaining what people living with dementia need from their GP’s. We hope that our experiences both good and bad will shape tomorrows doctors and ensure the importance of dementia is heard.
We’re DEEPly grateful for our DEEP support network, we cross pollinated and ended up with 18 participants to our open Peer Support Group meeting on Friday 22nd January.
This meeting was facilitated by people living with dementia sharing and comparing their experiences and dementia pathways with each other around the country. It was interesting to note how each person diagnosed with dementia had a different review period (between 3-12 months) yet not one of them had regular review meetings with their GP. The only participant within the 18 who had regular reviews was from across the pond in Canada. This was a very interesting meeting with action points needed to be taken onboard.
We will be back to our smaller Peer Support Group this week to check in with each other on a smaller level. Members mentioned how valuable opening our doors is, and would like to continue to do this on a regular basis inviting guests from across the DEEP network.
The peer support given in this meeting was incomparable with participants at different points in their pathway they were able to support those who were in their early stages. Several members commented how they feel more comfortable opening up to people with similar experiences, living with dementia. The importance of peer support is echoed throughout the country. We have extended our current project to all of our guests to make sure we get a range of perspectives with no boundaries on towns, counties or even countries!
In today’s meeting we had Joy, Wayne from Kent and Bill all the way from Canada to share, talk and be a part of essential peer support. We also had a guest from the Alzheimer’s Society Veronica who has an interest in the value to peer support groups to join us and ask questions about how we work.
If you’re a regular blog post reader you’ll know we are working on a new project for the DEEP network relating to COVID and Dementia – we’re lucky enough to have our guests on board with this project and they will be joining our sub-group meetings in the future, how exciting!
Until next week – BJF Peer Support Group
2020 has been a very unusual year for everyone but here at the Beth Johnson Foundation Peer Support group we definitely haven’t let it stop us. A little overview of everything we have achieved during 2020 and a promising outlook for 2021.
At the start of the year we had a new Project Co-ordinator Laura, who due to COVID-19 has been with the Foundation for 10 months now and still has never met most of our members in person. This did not stop them from giving her the warmest welcome to the group. We had our first ever virtual Zoom meeting on April 27th 2020 and it was all go from there! We decided to meet bi-weekly instead of monthly to keep in touch and share experiences during these strange times. We quickly put together out Top Tips and Tricks on living well with dementia during lockdown, which sharing with the world allowed others to use them and hopefully make a difference.
June soon flew round and the group felt they needed more time to discuss all the topics that were coming up in the zoom meetings. Together we decided to now meet every week on a Friday at 11am, ‘It’s like going the pub with your mates and having a good chat but without buying the weekly round?! In June we also had our film premier with Bigger House and the DEEP network which showcased member’s individual films made about their pathway with dementia. Meeting members of the network all over the UK and being a part of our biggest Zoom meeting with over 40 members!
Did you hear the new name for the month of September? Our group wrote letters, send photos, created social media platforms to stay connected to each other. We questioned the governments saying of ‘Social Distancing’ while respecting its attributes of course. We thought how can it be we are social distancing when we are being more social than ever with new members joining us, existing members overcoming technology issues and joining the group online? We may be physically distanced in Social September but definitely not socially distanced!
October and November provided us with the Arts! We reminisced through the use of childhood photos and mischievous stories about miniskirts to bell bottoms, fresh perms to kiss-curls, need we say more?! We also had performances on Zoom from B Arts telephone theatre and a Story Telling virtual workshop.
With us half way through December – we were guilty of celebrating early this year with Festive Fridays taking place from the 4th of December onwards! This will continue throughout the month to brighten up these dark days, both in relation to daylight and recent events. Building a strong peer support group has helped each individual tackle personal hurdles and overcome problems as a whole group.
We would like to wish everyone a very merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year. We are looking promising into the future to meet again, raise a glass and appreciate the little things again.
All the best,
The Beth Johnson Foundation Peer Support Group.
What a busy morning we have had! We had the pleasure of being joined by two guests from other DEEP Groups Julie and Stephen. They had a taster of what our BJF Peer Support Group gets up to in our Zoom sessions, we’ll leave the judgement up to them!
This week we had a 10 minute demonstration of EFT (Emotional Freedom Tapping) by our member Sue. We focused on reducing chocolate cravings, a brave and difficult choice if we do say so.. This technique she shared has helped her deal with a whole range of emotions including anxiety. The session was shared in hope that it might help others during this stressful time – thankyou Sue!
We have a busy December ahead of us joining other groups, attending new activities and Zoom parties all round. Keep your eyes peeled.
Beth Johnson Foundation Stoke & North Staffordshire Dementia Advocacy 