We had 24 carers to this evening's meeting, Lisa welcomed everyone and gave a brief update about vaccinations and also informing them further about her recent question at Council meeting regarding unpaid carers who should be listed in the first 2 priority groups for vaccination. Lisa had no response yet for this to report.

Lisa then asked Andrew Wrensch – Community Development Manager at Carlton Court Care Home to talk to everyone regarding – training as Lisa and Andrew had spoken before the meeting about providing various training to members at the group. Andrew agreed that he would be happy to do this. Andrew gave a list of the various subjects that he could provide as training which also included some certified training like – Life Support and First Aid. Members were delighted to hear this news and asked if the list could be provided. Lisa said that she would be happy to share the list of training with everyone when she receives this from Andrew. The first subject decided unanimously for training was ‘Understanding distress behaviour’ and this would then lead to the following week’s training about ‘Managing/Avoiding distress behaviour’.

The various subjects raised by Andrew prompted various other conversations raised by members and as we also had our Trustee and GP Dr Angela Parker at the meeting, members were also able to ask Dr Angela for some medical advice.

Andrew also mentioned that the NHS are now sending Lateral Flow Home Testing Kits to care homes so that all the carers are tested before they start work. As the test only takes 20 minutes to give a result, this is very helpful especially as it is 65% - 72% accurate.

Other discussions were about when lockdown measures will be lifted and places to go for walks and relax. Andrew mentioned that he had 2 horses at Lewis of London at Fold Farm in Barnet. Members were very interested and asked that they could be sent more details. Andrew said that he would email Lisa with details to pass on. There is also the best ice cream shop there made locally.

http://www.highlivingbarnet.com/fold-farm-ice-cream-farm/

Everyone thanked Andrew and Lisa for a very interesting and informative meeting.