Summer Events in Trafford

Upcoming events and groups:

June 17^th: Hale Dementia Hub

Hale Library, Leigh Road, Hale. 1.30 – 3.30pm. Anyone with memory loss or dementia welcome and family supporters. Color Purple Therapies joining us to talk about relaxation and stress management.

June 21^st: Best Foot Forward, Falls Awareness event

Our lady of the Rosary Church, Davyhulme Road, Urmston. 10.30am – 4.30 (drop in). Information on healthy feet, bone health, Walking Stick MOT, medication review plus more. Contact Karen Duffy to book a place 0161 746 9752.

July 2^nd: Urmston Dementia Hub

Urmston Conservative Club, Crofts Bank Road, Urmston. 1.30 – 3.30 pm. Anyone with memory loss or dementia welcome and family supporters. Trafford Leisure Trust joining us to talk about leisure services for over 50’s.

 July 5^th: Brooklands Primary school concert

Brooklands School, Woodbourne Road, Sale 1.30. The school choir will be showing their musical skills, singing songs for us – in readiness for their end of year talent show! Please help us show our appreciation for the school who are very supportive of Age UK Trafford.

July 15^th: Hale Dementia Hub

Hale Library, Leigh road, Hale, 1.30-3.30pm. Anyone with memory loss or dementia welcome and family supporters. Trafford Leisure Trust will be joining us to talk about leisure services for the over 50’s in Trafford.

July 26^th: Carers Group meeting at Sale Water Park

Anyone who supports a family member with dementia is welcome to meet us at Sale Water Park from 1pm for a beverage and mutual support.

July 29^th: Outing to Salford Quays         

Whatever the weather, meet us at the Quays at 1.00pm (meeting point to be arranged) for a stroll round the quays and media city, or should it be inclement, we can look around the Lowry. All with memory loss / dementia and family supporters welcome.

August 6^th: Urmston Dementia Hub

Urmston Conservative Club, Crofts Bank Road, Urmston. 1.30 – 3.30 pm. Anyone with memory loss or dementia and family supporters welcome. No speaker this month, but relaxation, activities and information sharing.

August 13^th: General Hub Outing to Sale Water Park

Meet at the car park around 1pm for a gentle stroll round the water, or a sit down and a beverage in the cafe. All who have memory loss or dementia and family supporters welcome.

August 19^th: Hale Dementia Hub

Hale Library, Leigh Road, Hale, 1.30 – 3.30 pm. Anyone with memory loss or dementia and family supporters welcome. No speaker this month, but relaxation, activities and information sharing.

If you have any questions or would like to let us know you’re coming to any of the above events, please contact Lise or Joanna on 0161 746 3944. We are available to provide support and advice on dementia, so please don’t hesitate to call. If no-one is in to take your call, please leave a message and we will return your call as soon as possible.

If you prefer to email, drop us a line at dementia.adviser@ageuktrafford.org.uk

My Nan, Peggy

My Nan, Peggy Matthews, came from a family in service. My very first memory is of her taking me to hospital to see my new born cousin, and I have many memories of drinking green pop on her doorstep on a hot summers day, eating freshly cut crinkly chips and egg, a 10p bag of sweets on a Sunday morning. We’d wait at the bus stop to go into town – “one and two halves please” – 50p in all – and while eating chips and curry sauce in Busby’s chip shop I’d look at the poster of the knickerbocker glory on the wall, wondering how old you had to be before you were allowed one. She’d bring raspberry pie for lunch on a Sunday, called bread rolls ‘cobs’ and took us around the flower gardens in Shrewsbury, umbrella at the ready. She was a witch on Halloween, cackling as she rode high above the town, a jazz singer in the clubs, a nurse, and she slept for a whole week in a bunker during the war. One day during the war, she even did the washing on the wrong day because they got so mixed up with the time. She had three sons, an adopted daughter, and proudly told everyone she met about her ten grandchildren. She hummed tunes called inky pinky parley vous, chattanooga choochoo, and many others that ended in dum di dum, and felt sorry for Freddie Mercury when he died.

As I moved through my early teens things started to change – I don’t recall the speed of decline, but I remember telling my friend on the way home that she was in a second childhood. Phoning our house fifty times a day, shouting at mum, who asked her to bring seven pairs of knickers to wash on a Sunday, and who was promptly given seven unworn pairs. Dr Hughes told Dad that Peggy knew John Major was the Prime Minister, so she must be OK and there was nothing he could do. My Mum worried that her relatives in Derby would think they weren’t doing anything for her. But there were falls, fall-outs, upsets and lots of worry. She still came on a Sunday, but the pies stopped coming with her. The words dementia or Alzheimer’s were never mentioned, nothing was forthcoming in the way of support or information. Eventually, one day when we came back from Wales, Dad found her on the floor of her bungalow. She hadn’t fallen, the ambulance man said, but had lain down on the floor, was dehydrated and severely confused. In hospital we showed her pictures of a lovely hotel – she could still read though, saw the words “residential home” and gave a cry of anguish.

We took her on outings to Lake Vyrnwy and around the countryside. Like all the other residents, she was usually sitting in a chair in the lounge, staring into the abyss, talking to no-one and no-one talking to her. I feel certain she was given medication to keep her quiet. In the corner a lady sat smoking – 100 cigarettes a day, she was an Oxford graduate who eventually was the engineer of her own fatal fire. At least she didn’t get lung cancer, we said. I remember seeing the smoke marks on the wall where she used to sit, before they had a chance to clean it up.

Peggy seemed to fade away – one last birthday gathering with 7 of the grandchildren and a cake, one last winter, and the phone call came after my Dad had left to come home, having sat with her for two days, a few months short of her 80^th birthday. Her distinctive smell was apparent to me for a good fortnight around the chair where she used to sit on a Sunday afternoon.

That was seventeen years ago. I often wonder now whether, with access to medication, day support, advice, guidance and support for my parents as carers, she would have made it to eighty. I’m sure it would have been a happier journey for everyone, and more dignified. Let’s be thankful for progress, and keep fighting to improve awareness, care, treatment and quality of life for those affected by dementia.

Dementia Hubs

It's been a while since our previous post, so I thought we were due an update on the dementia support hubs going into 2013.

Our hubs are for people with a recent diagnosis, or memory loss worries, and have a dual aim of connecting people with others in a similar situation, and inviting guests from local organisations of particular interest to carers and people with dementia.  

We want to ensure people have the information they need, to adjust to life with dementia in the present and planning ahead. The groups are informal and welcoming to all.

Urmston Hub

Conservative Club, Crofts Bank Road
First Tuesday of the month (6th Nov, 4th Dec, 8th Jan etc)
1:30- 3:30 pm


Hale Hub

Hale Library, Leigh Road 
Third Monday of the month (19th Nov, 17th Dec, 21st Jan etc)
1:30 - 3:30 pm

Carers Group and Post-Christmas meet

Our Friday Carers Group at Butler Court will cease from January 2013.

Instead, we are starting a floating group, to meet in various public establishments around Trafford every 6 weeks.  Carers are welcome to attend all the dates, but we also extend to those who just want to come along when we are at a local venue. Carers can treat themselves to lunch if they wish.

Before our carers group gets started in earnest, we will be having a post-Christmas social, to which both people with dementia and carers are invited:

Friday 13th January, 1pm at The King's Ransom in Sale.

People will be able to buy lunch or simply come for the company. If you would like to come, please let the dementia advisers know, so we have an idea of how many will attend - on 0161 746 3944.

The 2013 Carers Meetings are planned as follows,  1 - 3pm:

Monday 11th February at Mersey Farm, Ashton on Mersey
Tuesday 26th March at The Roebuck, Urmston
Wednesday 1st May at The Moss Trooper, Timperley
Thursday 13th June at Dunham Massey Estate
Friday 26th July at Sale Water Park
Monday 23rd September at The Cottage, Hale
Tuesday 29th October at The Urmston Hotel, Urmston
Wednesday 11th December at The Hare and Hounds, Timperley

Please note, the above dates are only for carers.

As always, don't hesitate to call on 9161 746 3944 with questions or enquiries.

Older People's Day 2012

Dementia Hub at Hale

Falls Awareness Week 18th - 24th June 2012

Number Crunching with Dementia

A report by the Health Foundation in October 2011 has provided some estimates of potential financial savings that could be made by treatments and support for people with dementia.

This table takes a bit of time to absorb – of course the figures are estimates, and I can’t comment on the accuracy or efficacy of the sums.  But they give us an idea of the amounts of money we are talking about, that is, how much each parent, spouse, grandparent, each person with dementia costs to care for.

There are several things that can be pulled from this. Firstly, the importance of seeking and accepting support early on, despite being counter intuitive to many, actually can have a positive financial effect, as well as maintaining the quality of life we expect by retaining independence and membership of our community. It also highlights the cost of complications including infections and fractures, both of which may be to some extent preventable with good information and support to people with dementia and their family carers. The complications experienced within hospital also may be reduced by good quality dementia care – which is not universally provided at the present time. Once again, dementia’s unique place between health and social care means efficiency is dependent on convergent, symbiotic practices. The report also notes that the implementation of the National Dementia Strategy will create a £1.35 billion deficiency, after the £533 million it will save, which in other words is an acknowledgement that the necessary changes in provision for people with dementia should not be squeezed or confused with altering service provision to cut costs. Schemes such as direct payments and personal budgets are therefore only going to be effective in terms of supporting people with dementia if they are not constrained and governed solely by the need to save money. The final point I wish to make (although not the final point that can be made) is the financial cost of prescribing anti-psychotic drugs needlessly and without benefit. With good quality diagnosis, early treatment and support for family carers, including knowledge of how to reduce the risk of delirium, altering the elements which can be changed, including environment and caring approaches to alleviate certain situations, higher level needs can be supported without anti-psychotic medication.

The entire report can be found here: http://www.health.org.uk/public/cms/75/76/4181/2703/Spotlight_Dementia%20Care.pdf?realName=55ojeV.pdf  

Estimated costs of care for people with dementia and potential savings (found on p33 of The Health Foundation’s report, linked above)

	Estimated Costs	Potential For Savings
	Direct healthcare costs £8bn a year in UK. Memory clinic service for early diagnosis: £220m a year in England.	Cost saving after six years if use of memory clinics for early diagnosis leads to 20% or more reduction in need for residential care.
	Anti-Alzheimer drugs: £720 per patient per year (assume £60 per month). Excess bed-days in acute hospital: £1,400 per week. Clinical leader to implement dementia care pathway in every acute trust: £3m a year in UK.	12% reduction in need for residential care in people with mild to moderate dementia treated for six months or longer. £117m if length of stay is reduced by seven days for every inpatient with dementia admitted for fractured hip, chest infection, urinary tract infection or mini stroke. £700m if length of stay reduced by two days for every inpatient with dementia by providing psychiatrist-led multidisciplinary assessment, or intermediate care. Assuming 25% of people aged 60+ admitted have dementia, and excess bed cost is £200 per day. £38m from seven day reduction in hospital admissions from use of hospital at home scheme £400 per patient whose length of stay is reduced by two days from use of psychiatrist-led assessment of all elderly patients admitted to hospital
	Inappropriate use of medication: £84m a year for 140,000 people in England given antipsychotic drugs who are unlikely to benefit and may be harmed by them	£84m a year from stopping inappropriate use of antipsychotic drugs (assume £600 for one year’s treatment per patient)
Social Care	Long-term residential care: £9bn a year in UK. Community social service costs: £2.4bn. Home care: £150 per week. Day care: £90 per week. Residential care: £500 per week, £26,000 per year	18% fewer people needing residential care after two years with care management to coordinate health and social care. £14,000 reduction in costs of residential care from psychosocial care given to carers (200 day delay in need for residential care).
Costs to the patient, family and other informal carers	Costs of informal care: £12bn a year for UK. £270 per patient per week if carer time estimated at minimum wage	£1,280 saved per patient over three months from an occupational therapy training service for carers

 As always if you require any information on supporting someone with dementia in Trafford, please do not hesitate to contact us on 0161 746 3944.