Dementia care through rose coloured spectacles

[danny]

I think my bubble may be bursting.I am living in a specialist dementia day support service.I am surrounded by rummage boxes,screens with calming seas,gentle cascading water features,pictures of bygone movie stars,boards telling me what day it is,pictures directing me to the loo,pictures of what is for lunch,smells of lavender and ginger wafting out of diffusers,dart boards,pinball machine,juke box,masses of curiosities and objects for me to pick up,stuffed toys,dollies,a piano and lots of musical instruments for me to play with,magnifying glasses,dominoes with big dots on,board games,kareoke machine,lava lamps,big print newspaper and a wii.I look outside and I can see winter plants,wind chimes swaying,colourful whizzing windmills,old tin advert boards and a morris minor car.I walk around and I can see potting sheds,vegetable plots and greenhouses all in an enclosed walled garden.Gentle music is playing.At the front sits a new mini bus.In the office there are shelves upon shelves of information sheets,books,all on dementia.On the office wall hang certificates of attendance on many specialist courses.On my desk sits confirmation from Sterling University of my place starting next week to study a diploma in dementia studies and a lesson plan for a new course I have written that the Alzheimers society need in order to begin an accreditation process with them to become an approved trainer.The gardener is raking the leaves outside,his dementia certificates are on the wall as well.I have offered my house free of charge to be used as a memory cafe and a pop in centre for stressed out carers to come in for a chat and a coffee anytime.Hundreds of calls and letters later the only people interested have been 2 MPS and 2 representatives from the Alzheimers Society are coming out next week.No one is listening even to those who want to help and make a difference.

 

[TinaT]

Is this heaven or what? If only! I will be slated to high heaven here but this type of thing is accepted, run of the mill as part of enriching a severely disabled child's life, not a severely disabled older person's life!

xxTinaT

 

[danny]

Tina,the sensory things are only in one room!I am just highlighting a point,but fair comment and no doubt there will be more.Take care.

 

[Vonny]

Dear Danny, please don't think no one is interested. Apart from anything else, new ventures take time to get of the ground. Yes, the initial advertising needs to be done but it is when word of mouth starts getting around that people will start to really take notice.

It must be very dispiriting after all your hard work which is obviously still continuing with your diploma work, but please give it time before your get despondant. Rome wasn't built in a day.

Vonny xx

 

[danny]

Thanks Vonny,I should not have posted this,I was very tired last night and thinking the worst,really in hindsight this problem of mine,although connected with dementia care,should not be here,but I have become quite attached over the last few months to this forum.Apart from one manager the rest of my staff are fed up with me harping on about dementia care and my family quote ,keep telling me to get a life,hence,why I am here often!No one minds talking about dementia here!Now I know that some of you would rather I found another forum but I really do not want to,No one would talk to me at all!Take care.

 

[Norrms]

Hiya Danny

Hiya my friend, do not lose faith my dear friend, we are all working for the same ends in our own small little way. But when i say small, i promise you it will not be "Small" for long as we all unite and shout the same message. Even us with this horrid disease are getting louder and we need good people like your good self to fight our corner when we cannot, please dont worry my friend, you are amongst good friends here, best wishes, Norrms and family xxxxxxx

 

[DMWalker]

I just wish we lived in Cornwall! Thanks Danny.

Love Dee

 

[Winnie Kjaer]

Please do not dispair give it time, perservere, with dementia fortunately being so much in the news now, you will have opportunities to spread the word. It takes time I know, but perhaps you could enlist you enthuthiastic member of staff to assist you and give her a PR role. The word will soon get around. Are you located in a rural area or are you easily accessible? I really wish you luck and look forward to hearing much more from you.

 

[danny]

Thankyou Norms,Dee and Win.I never realised how powerful a few kind words can be.

 

[Beezed]

Dear Danny,

You keep on keeping on. We need people like you.

love
Jeanne

 

[geum123]

Keep up the good work.

Danny,
Please, please do not be disheartened.
This is what should be happening in care homes to stimulate and give back self esteem.
It is what all care homes should aim for.

I only wish that the person would be central to the care rather than the profit being foremost.


Regards,
Geum.

 

[gigi]

Danny, you've obviously invested a lot of yourself as well as time and money into your venture..please don't give up hope.

Things may pick up once the AS reps have been out to visit you. I wonder if you have told SS of your existence...and if you have spread the word amongst local Carer Support Groups.(Forgive me if you've already thought of that!)

Failing that...how about offering supported holidays for Dementia sufferers and their carers until things improve?

I wish I lived nearer...

xx

 

[danny]

I am going to brave the storm and tackle a subject,this I think,rightly or wrongly,may have just come up in another thread.Are you intending in making a lot of profit out of our sufferings?The simple answer is no,no,no.We just want to cover the overheads and pay decent staff wages.I am fortunate that I have an income from other sources.However,I do intend to make a little profit from training carers in homes etc in the future.Now I realise some of you will not be able to get your head around this but such is life.There,all said that needs to be and I feel better now for it.Once again thanks for everyones help and I am taking on board all your ideas for marketing this venture.

 

[JPG1]

Angela,

I’ve had a look at your website, and it says open from December 7th. Have you had the equivalent of an Open Day – free of charge to all who can get to you locally – so that they can suss out your wares, and have a rummage through your rooms? (If you pardon the expression!) Cream teas provided. Or mulled cider in this weather!

It’s not the greatest time of the year to get people out and about, but if you could attract the equivalent of the 20 people you say is your maximum per session, then that might be a start. You are in a beautiful part of the country, and I guess you are going to be relying on ‘local trade’ only.

Have you thought of delegating the promotion of your enterprise to one member of staff, so that s/he can enjoy the passion of selling/advertising/promoting it? Would your manager (the one who’s not fed up with talk of dementia care) take it on while you’re concentrating on your Diploma? (I presume you’re going to be doing your dementia studies course ‘online’ – or are you off to the other end of the country?) Manager person could shoot a video of your facilities and take it to local carers groups, day centres etc. Let him/her have a ‘brainstorming’ session with the rest of your staff – or have you done that already? Give him/her total free rein - or even a new job title, for the time being!

Just one other thought: your Tariff may be a big hurdle for some people. It will be fairly expensive for some, other than for the occasional ‘one off’, so is there any way you could break that down more, so as to make it attractive and enticing?

It will take time to build up a fan-club, but you'll get there.

 

[danny]

Hi JPG1,some of your suggestions are really good and I am going to use them,with regard to the cost I am still working my hardest to get some commissioning from the PCT!I am doing the course online,I will just divert my time from here for a while.We are looking into the cost but we have to take some variable factors into place,the main one being staffing levels.However,DACS pay a well known generic day centre provider £35 per day which does not include transport,most people go 10am til 3pm,people can come to us 7 til 5 if they wish,though I know many won`t.Thanks,Angela

 

[imac.girll1]

Drop in centre, why is there not more of these places.

I can appreciate some people might not like to think that Dementia Care is a business but it is, and if we don't pay people well, then we dregs of the working folk that don't give a damn about our parents, wives, husbands, children even, caring for them in a poorer way than what we would wish for them.

Money is the evil of all, but it is a must, and if making money to pay staff to do the best for our loved ones, then i am for it.

I want the best care when the time comes for my mother, not some useless person who cant be bothered getting out of the staff room when they are required to.

It all needs to be done and Danny you are on the right road for being an ambassador of the Dementia care system.

Good luck and keep posting.

 

[TinaT]

Your heart is obviously in the right place and you should be congratulated on this venture. From small acorns, big oak tree grow. You have studied all the textbooks and now it's time to put it into planned practice. I would certainly be using you if I could. I wish I could come along and help!

As I said right at the beginning, it is thought worthwile to enrich a disabled child's life. It should be run of the mill to enrich an older disabled adult's life but it isn't. Lets hope that this will snowball. I hope you get lots of publicity and success from it.

xxTinaT

 

[Tender Face]

Danny, I will share publicly what one or two members only know .... since my mum died I have been considering using her small inheritance to start up a business ( yes, it would have to be a business – because I need to earn a crust!) Had her inheritance been the equivalent of six numbers coming on my Lotto ticket on Saturday I would willingly dedicate myself voluntarily to the ‘dream’ I have for dementia care in my area .... (and perhaps beyond!) but even a lottery win would not finance even the medium-term on-going costs of meeting needs, supplying equipment, funding venues and recruiting the calibre of staff I dream of ..... (and that is not knocking a wonderful ‘volunteer’ workforce out there but still has inherent costs of expenses/insurances/training etc) I simply cannot foresee how I would fund even medium term unless I had some guaranteed revenue from the venture ...

I have never been self-employed ... terrified at the mere thought of ‘marketing’ a service, for one thing .. and one of my problems is the idea of ‘making money out of people’s suffering’. I have debated the ethics of this long and hard with a few people ...... one view ... nurses and doctors would not be expected to tend to the sick voluntarily .. another ... privately run care is a business enterprise ... or is it? And so I go round in loops ..... and am not getting very far very fast other than scribbling on the back of a fag packet ideas (oops! New Year’s Resolution already blown!) If we were really into entrepreneurial realms would we not be marketing some product or service on Dragon’s Den? (Maybe that’s an idea!???)

I really wish you all the luck in the world, Danny .... the care ‘industry’ really needs people like you and backing motivated by ‘care’ not finance ... but it is a ‘necessary evil’ that finance has to play some part including the fact that those giving the care or providing services are entitled to earn a living too and cannot always do things simply out of the goodness of their heart!

(BTW, JPG1 – decided on a name for my care agency should I ever get it off the ground – ‘AWB’ – remember that wonderful chap on the Panorama programme who just wanted ‘A Wee Blether’ with his carers? Those are the sorts of standards I would want – people with time to do more than check medication and make a sandwich .. people who love people and want (and have the 'permission') to spend time with them.... who care for the carers too and understand communications needs ... time for carers to fill out the necessary paperwork without it feeling a burden to them – and not just to prove they visited but to give loved ones, never mind professionals who might need their observations, a picture .....) Better stop now, I am moving into Utopia world ....

Danny, you are a brave soul. I will no doubt pussy-foot into some re-training to serve my own needs to work in dementia support. I wish I had your guts and vision and wish you success at every level.

Karen, x

 

[danny]

Good morning,thankyou again to all of you for taking the time to post on this thread.Caring for people with dementia is not new,having an insight,a little more knowledge,time and resources to do it better is.I would also like to thank the moderators for allowing this thread.I know I have been skating on icy ground for some of you and I really appreciate the fact you have let me have my say.Kind regards to all of you,Angela.

 

[danny]

Hi everyone,quick update.Took all of your comments on board.Having an open day in march,David Sheard,who worked on the TV documentary with Gerry Robinson,is coming down to do a presentation for us,I am using him as a ploy to get the statutory bodies in,the purse strings to funding!!
The lead commissioner from social services and the carers lead for cornwall are coming to see us in a couple of weeks time.Next week the lead commissioner from the PCT and the dementia lead nurse for Cornwall are coming out.
I am making this new venture into a community interest company,this means any profits have to be reinvested into the company.The company has to be viable,we can pay decent salaries etc but we can not pay dividends out like a normal company does.
Any profits have to be put back into expanding the scheme etc.

I feel alot happier with this type of company and so does everyone else!We are putting people first,I was doing this anyway,I did not realise such legal entities existed.

Still no customers,a lady came out to see us last week,she informed all the staff at the memory clinic where she was going,both her parents have AD,none of the staff had heard of us,despite me writing to every GP,CPN,DN,social case co within a vicinity of 30 miles!!!!They asked her to take some leaflets back !The lady was moved to tears when she came to see us,she was so relieved to find somewhere she could call on and hopefully is trying to get her father out next week to pop in and meet us.

Karen,keep in touch,if this venture works come and see us and I can give you all you need to know to do this up north!!

You can get lottery funding etc.I just wish I knew about community interest companies 12 months ago!