Submitted by Judith Brian
Sandra and I arrived at 8am on the 25th of August to set up, with people so eager they arrived soon after. The usual fun with technology to begin with and we were ready to go by 9am. I welcomed everyone with a quick poll to discover that some ladies had driven from Mornington, 5 hours way, also from Ballarat, Hastings, Belgrave and Mt Gambier – 2 to 3 hours away.
Joy Errey began with an ice breaker to allow all to meet and got everyone talking. The first speaker was Karen Cameron who began with an overall explanation of Dementia and expanded on the HACC model for people with Dementia regarding their social, emotional and physical needs when doing a planned activity group. She discussed the “room” in which the activity is held and how the environment should ideally be set up so people don’t feel like strangers and how to use prompts to take way the strangeness of the environment. She talked about the design elements of the room or facility, the correct use of colour to define specific areas, doorways and passageways, the use of arrows on the floor to guide residents to the dining room. One example is may be to lower the pictures on the wall as a talking point and as a clue to finding specific areas or their own room. Google – “Dementia friendly environments” for ideas. To support involvement –have areas where people can self-select an activity. Know your clients well, their stories and build upon it including meaningful activities- looking at the abilities of the clients from referring agencies or family. Karen also talked about relevant exercises suggesting everyone should google Canadian Activity Sort Card as an interesting tool to use for assessments.
Sarah Gravolin a Physiotherapist, employed at Lyndoch Living runs a Parkinson’s support group. She gave an overall view of a person with Parkinson’s disease, how that person is diagnosed and the markers used. She supplied a very useful handout, with comprehensive information covering all the aspects of her talk. Sarah explained how dopamine is used and how its timing is important for the client. Her information was easily understood and helpful.
The next speaker was Kathy Garner, her presentation focused on the Diversional Therapist and on how to take care of themselves as carers. Often looking after one self is the last thing on the “to do” list and it is important to take care both mentally and physically of yourself, just as you look at the holistic care for your clients. Wellness, a healthy balance of work and leisure, resilience, and good mental health is not an emergency relief plan to be activated at the last resort. It is a plan to be put into practice every day. It is not about acting selfishly. It is not about doing more. Self-care is a regular routine. We each need our own stress management plan as well. Such as exercise, healthy food, sleep, relaxation techniques, creative expression and having someone to talk to.
Kathy too had a very informative handout. Her take home message was that “Self-care is not selfish or self-indulgent. We cannot nurture others from a dry well. We need to take care of our own needs first then we can give from our surplus, our abundance”.
We then broke for lunch which was amazing, soup, hot food, salad and fruit.
After lunch Anne Osman from the Australian Aged Care Quality Agency spoke. Anne is a very engaging presenter, giving very practical advice on a somewhat scary or some may consider a dreary subject, however Anne is able to boil it down and make it more user friendly. She talked about the standards for accreditation-the 4 standards and the 44 outcomes looking particularly at standard 3 and advised that it is to be resident lead. She also reminded us of the importance of doing quality improvement and documentation of this. Anne was good at revealing any new changes, explaining the current system thoroughly. Anne also reaffirmed that DTs ensure quality of life and that we are important. Good strong advice.
Our last speaker was Lyn Shanahan from Diversitat in Geelong, she shared a project the she has done through the Well for Life program- “Life Stories” and the various ways, be it in book form or film. The books were passed around and the films shown. She also shared useful Websites for a book form. The use of a good digital camera was advised and to get the story as told by the author. These ideas could easily be adopted by any facilities.
Somehow we fitted six “Takeaway CAFÉ’s”, throughout the day all with great ideas.
• Enid O’Conner from Timboon, showed us how to do simple Butterfly pictures, which were stunningly effective.
• Helen Coomber from Warrnambool shared Quilts n Cushions. Helen has made wall quilts by tracing around a residents hand, cutting out the shape and incorporating onto a quilt square using pretty fabric, then aptly named the Quilt, a “Friendship Quilt”.
• Helen Lingard- talked about Cafe Lexi. At her facility they put in a small cafe with a good coffee machine which was hired from a coffee company the coffee being supplied. Barista training was undertaken and family and residents were happy to visit the café so they made a small profit on each cup sold.
• Marsha Ayers had an apron to which she had sewn different textured fabrics in various shapes. She wore the apron and residents were encouraged to feel the fabrics.
• Wayne Reid from Winchelsea had a super-sized scrabble board. This board was approximately 1 metre x 1 metre and excellent for vision impaired clients or where motor skills are impaired.
Pat Purcell from Macarthur, showed us a word game that she used from www.wordle.net.
A very successful day was had with approximately 45 people attending- A real workshop success!