We had 27 members for the evening meeting. Lisa welcomed everyone and introduced her special guests;

• Mr Eshwan Seedoyal – Barnet Memory Service Team Leader & ECT Coordinator (Trustwide)
• Mr Alan McVitty – Admiral Nurse
• Ms Caroline Goodfellow – Barnet Memory Service Shared Team Leader
• Ms Margaret Felle Coyle – Admiral Nurse

Eshwan started to talk saying that there are 2 Admiral Nurses in Barnet and they have large caseloads. Admiral Nurses focus on the carer and the family to support the carer in their caring role. Their first priority is the carer and then the person with dementia. They work on a one to one basis whereas the Barnet Memory Service works on group chat sessions. However the group chats have not been very successful as they are not always convenient for the carers to attend either for travel reasons or times. Admiral Nurses also liaise with other agencies e.g. GPs, voluntary organisations, Age UK, Jewish care. They work jointly with these agencies.

Eshwan then asked Alan to say a few words about his work and then Margaret and Caroline also followed.

Members had a lot of questions and some of the members who already knew Margaret had some very wonderful feedback saying how much she has been able to help their family and there were a few tears of gratitude.

We also had Dr Angela at the meeting who is one of our Trustees who also had a question about social prescribing and also it was a pleasure to also have this evening Andrew Wrensch from Carlton Court Care Home – Community Development Manager who was also happy to suggest to Eshwan that if a venue was required to host the group meetings then Carlton Court would be happy to help when things were back to normal.

Eshwan also mentioned to everyone at the end that there was an Admiral Helpline which is Nationwide for anyone who needed to call and get some advice. The number is 0800 888 6678 and this is open Monday to Friday 9.00am to 9.00pm and Saturday and Sunday from 9.00am to 5.00pm

Lisa thanked her special guests who remained for the rest of the meeting. Lisa then gave a brief summary about what has been happening with regards to the visiting in care homes campaign and then informed everyone about who was attending next week’s meeting. Lisa informed everyone that Nilesh one of the carers had written a letter to Theresa Villiers MP and Lisa also mentioned that she also invited Theresa if she could attend next week’s carers meeting. Nilesh also invited 2 care homes who confirmed they were attending. Discussions then continued about visiting in care homes and also other discussions about respite vouchers. Carers were concerned that they would be expiring and will not get a chance to use them. They were also wondering if they were just to use for care homes. Eshwan confirmed that the respite vouchers were for using for care homes only.

Lisa thanked everyone again and the meeting ended.