We had 29 members at the meeting. Lisa welcomed everyone and gave a special welcome to our visitor Dr Rhonda Cohen (Head of Department: Sport Science and Rehabilitation at Middlesex University and sport and exercise Psychologist BPS and HCPC). Lisa also welcomed the Trustees and also Andrew Wrensch.
Lisa introduced Rhonda informing everyone how she conducted a research study about the dementia club in 2015 to evaluate its benefits of physical activity and other activities and its effectiveness with people living with dementia and their carers. Lisa asked Rhonda how she coped during the pandemic and also the University. Rhonda said it has been difficult and especially for the students living alone as many had been affected with mental health issues.
Lisa then read out a lovely letter she received today from Theresa Villiers MP saying how pleased she was that dementia Club UK were nominated Charity of the Year in Barnet. Theresa also congratulated Lisa on her work with the dementia club especially during the pandemic and also how she was also pleased that the ‘visiting in care homes’ has now moved forward and she would continue to talk to the Ministers. This letter will be on our website.
There was about 15 minutes left before Andrew started his seminar which gave members the opportunity for a general chat and Lisa to inform everyone to note in their diaries the other visitors joining on the 9th March (Mr Nigel Wray) and on the 16th March (Professor David Jefferys)
Lisa then introduced Andrew to start his seminar which today was about “Wellbeing & Activities”
As usual the seminar was very informative and interesting and as it ran a little over time and didn’t give much opportunity for everyone to ask their questions, this topic will continue for next week and also Andrew will introduce a new topic – “Dementia Awareness”
Lisa thanked her special visitor Dr Rhonda and also Andrew for his great seminar and also the Trustees and everyone.
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We had 29 members today. The session started with a new Karaoke Tuesday session with new requests which everyone enjoyed. The chat session then started at 2.30pm. Lisa welcomed everyone and informed them that there will be a special visitor later at the carers group meeting – Dr Rhonda Cohen who some remembered. There was also more recipes being discussed and everyone thought it would be nice if once we collected lots of recipes we could publish the book.
Ian our music entertainer then joined us and was greeted by everyone with great joy. Ian chose motown music today and this was a great choice as everyone was dancing and singing. Rachel then joined the session and everyone was ready. Rachel provided a good workout at the beginning which everyone participated and then for the latter part of the session this was the more energetic part with some salsa and disco dancing. Everyone really loved it.
Lisa then did the second part of the TV Adverts quiz which was great fun and the person with the highest score was Sotiris. The Bingo session then followed and the Bingo winner today was Laurie Porter.
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We had 31 members today. We had our Karaoke session at 2pm and then followed with the chat time. Lisa welcomed everyone and also welcomed the new members Jean and Joan. It was lovely to also see Sheila (volunteer from Rotary Club Golders Green). As Lisa asked members last week to make some of their favourite dishes and email the recipes with a picture, there were many members eager to share their recipes and talk about them. Lisa informed everyone that the recipes will be published first on the website. Once enough recipes are gathered a DCUK recipes book will be published.
Lisa then showed everyone a funny 3 minute video which was about – what happens when we get back to normality after zoom sessions. Lisa was also wearing a T-shirt with the words ‘You are on Mute’ which everyone thought was very funny.
Katie our music entertainer then joined us and everyone was pleased to see her. Today’s theme was the Beatles era and Katie always likes to finish off with a quiz question which Kevin was quick with the right answer.
Eon Walters than joined us to start the chair exercises and as usual Eon gets everyone working up a sweat including himself. Everyone loves the challenge.
Lisa then did a short quiz of 10 questions about TV Adverts. The members with the highest score was Fiona and Grace with 6 out of 10. It was then time for Bingo and members have been very anxious to know who will be the next winner. There were 2 winners - Kevin and Keren.
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We had 24 members today. The Karaoke session was on as usual and then the chat session at 2.30pm. Lisa welcomed everyone and it was lovely to see Andrew from the Church, Laurence Winston from Rotary Hendon and Melvyn our long standing volunteer. It was also lovely to see new members. Lisa then gave the sad news of Connie who passed away recently. Everyone was very sad. Lisa said that she would be sending a card on behalf of everyone.
There was a general chat after and everyone chatting about what recipes they were going to bring on Monday’s session. Lisa suggested that she could create a DCUK recipes book on the website which everyone thought was a great idea.
Kevin one of the carers was dressed with an ABBA wig today. James Le Bec and Joy joined the session and everyone was delighted to welcome them. Kevin reminded James he had to play an ABBA song. James had already prepared and of course played ‘Dancing Queen’ which was great. Kevin also mentioned that it was his birthday tomorrow so Lisa made sure that he had the DCUK special birthday singalong and James also made sure he had any other special music requests played. The music quiz was interesting and challenging as usual and the winners with 9 out of 10 were Fiona and Grace, Helen and Sandra.
Richard Kravetz then joined to do the chair Yoga exercises and this is followed with a quiz by Richard. The quiz today was ‘Food of the World’.
Quite a few members who score well but the top scores were Sandra and Pam – winning a make believe 10 course meal of all the dishes mentioned in the quiz. Everyone laughed.
Lisa then called out the Bingo numbers and the winner again was Laurie Porter.
There are a few members now with 2 wins. Who will be the winner for Game 8 Bingo?
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Lisa welcomed everyone and started promptly as there was a very busy agenda. We had 29 members this evening. Lisa started with news and updates. She repeated the news about the unpaid carers she mentioned at the earlier dementia club session and also about Adam Purnell the care home manager in Lancashire and the 2 articles as mentioned before.
Lisa gave thanks to Maurice one of the carers who emails Lisa the articles as soon as he reads them.
Lisa then informed members that she had invited Professor David Jefferys and he was attending the carers group session on Tuesday 16th March. Everyone was very pleased to hear the news.
Lisa also had some news to pass on from another carer who informed her that whilst her own carer was not working because her mother was recovering in hospital, she was happy to offer her carer to someone else for a few weeks.
Lisa then mentioned the wonderful feedback she was receiving about the seminars that Andrew Wrensch was delivering and mentioned that a couple of people had asked whether it was possible to record the seminars. Lisa informed everyone that she had looked into this and after discussing this with her Trustees, it was decided that it would not be a good idea as there may be Privacy issues and we also need to be careful as a registered charity that we don’t get into any trouble with the charity commission.
Lisa then introduced a short video clip of Dr John Campbell talking about Vitamin D and how this is processed in the human body. As the video is 30 minutes we only had time to show about 12 minutes but Lisa assured everyone that she would provide the URL for everyone to see the full video in their own. The video raised some questions about how much Vitamin D is sufficient and someone mentioned their recent blood test revealed that they had too much Vitamin D. Dr Angela advised that when someone is advised of their vitamin D levels they should ask for the numbers and also ask for a hormone test if the level is too high.
Dr Angela said that she would also look into this further for next week
It was now 7.30pm and Lisa welcomed Andrew and also Margaret Fell Colle – the Admiral Nurse who has attended a few times before.
Andrew’s seminar today was about ‘Sleep Disturbance and dementia care’.
Andrew went through his slides and was then ready for questions and answers. There were quite a few questions. The seminar was very interesting and informative providing lots of good advice about what foods are helpful and about the importance of having enough hours of sleep and how to help those with dementia who do not understand night and day. One of the members also mentioned about an Army trick which helps her fall asleep in 2 minutes called ‘The American Sleep’. Lisa and all the members thanked Andrew.
Next week’s seminar decided was – “Wellbeing & Activities”
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