Hayling care home offers dementia awareness classes at local college
Wimborne Care Home on Hayling Island is a residential home for those who are elderly/ frail and those living with dementia. Wimborne are on a mission to help people live well and part of that is helping others to understand dementia.
They have run a series of talks recently including ‘Dementia Awareness and Understanding’ and ‘Dementia Communication’. These have been delivered by Nikki Shepherd, Home Services Advisor at Wimborne who was previously a Specialist Dementia Coach and Educator in the NHS.
Wimborne enjoys very strong connections with their community on Hayling and as such have been delighted to work with Helen Cox, Deputy Head at The Hayling College. A series of talks has been delivered to the entire Year 8, that’s over 90 children aged 12 – 13 years.
Nikki, as a past parent at the College was invited in to speak to the children and was amazed at what they picked up and learnt. She said ‘Children of this age may have some experience of dementia; the subject was valuable to learn about because increasing awareness, learning how to support and empathise are valuable life skills. I was delighted at how engaged and forthcoming the groups were and feedback has been very strong and positive.’
The children were asked what they had learned and comments ranged from;
‘’People with dementia have less energy to do certain things, often forgetting where or what they are doing’’,
‘dementia is like cancer, no one has simply ‘it’, they have a type of it’,
‘it can be very frustrating and you can feel lost’,
‘people with dementia can have less energy and use more in everyday activities’ and
‘emotional feelings are more important than facts’.
Stephen Stace, Peri General manager of Wimborne, said:’’ Wimborne is very pleased to have been able to offer these talks and learning to the next generation. Nikki has been invited back to speak to families and friends of the school at 4pm on Thursday 14th May and will again help to break down the barriers and dispel some myths and misunderstandings."
For more details about free Dementia Awareness Talks in the area please don’t hesitate to contact [email protected]
If you would like to visit Wimborne, to find out more about life there, please call or email to arrange; 023 9246 7369 or [email protected].