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We have been working with a range of interdisciplinary professionals to pilot an action research project called Better Visits.

Better Visits aims to improve the experience that relatives have when going to a care setting to see their loved ones with dementia. The plan is to pilot creating and using a resource in one care setting based on what existing visitors tell us what challenges they face when visiting and what could potentially enhance this for them.

We are delighted to share that we have now got ethics approval from De Montfort University for our questionnaires for relatives and friends who visit loved ones in care settings and that these will hopefully be going out to over 100 people during February. We will then be able to gather information, as well as to offer one-to-one meetings and focus groups sessions as best we can to learn about the challenges faced and the support required to ensure that older people and their loved ones can have better visits.

We are delighted to be able to undertake this work with the fantastic group of like minded people from different organisations. A chance conference sitting on a great table turned the original idea into the proposal that won funding back in July 2017.

In order to build a network of mutual support and ideas sharing, L4A has been working to engage with, listen to and understand the needs and wants of Activity Coordinators working in care settings locally in Leicester and Leicestershire.

We are keen to support Activity Coordinators in finding effective, creative and supportive techniques to use with the older people they care for, to overcome some of the challenges faced by care home residents. This includes sight loss, hearing loss, frailty and limited dexterity.

We held an Active Listening session in September, which was run by Ali Sinclair. This explored active listening skills together, including barriers which can prevent such listening from taking place (for the speaker as well as the listener) and sharing ideas on how these can be overcome.

We also held an ‘Art for Non Artists’ course in November. As well as exploring a range of art materials and ideas and giving the opportunity to have a go, Rowena Williams talked about why art activities matter, how they can be adapted for mobility or cognitive issues and how to make the most of resources and buy knowledgably – really important for those on a tight budget.

All participants rated the sessions as “Very useful” and “very well presented” in feedback questionnaires afterwards. Sessions have been reported to be “fun, lively, social, supportive” by one attendee. Another wrote that she “Really enjoyed the workshop – it made doing art easy”. A third wrote that the session “was a breath of fresh air. Thank you!”

We plan for the remainder of the sessions to cover themes such as poetry and music, multi-sensory activities and a follow up to the very successful art workshop, this time focusing on a craft theme. We will also want to bring all the learning into an on-going accessible resource, although we are finding that the activity coordinators themselves are the best possible resource!

If you and your care setting are based in Leicester or Leicestershire and would like to join us for free, please do contact Fiona Smith on 07933 109 630 or email her on Fiona.smith@l4a.org.uk

In the light of the recent “Care Home for Four Year Olds” documentary being shown on Channel 4, we are proud and delighted to be piloting bringing similarly heartwarming intergenerational work to care settings in Leicester.

So far, our Baking a Difference project is bringing together nursery children from Blossoms Day Nursery and South Lodge care home to make, create and eat gorgeous bread, as well as to share time, stories and new experiences together.

Having been busy baking, the nursery children brought in Diwali present of bread sticks dipped in icing and sprinkles (above) for the care home residents to enjoy.

Having finished a fun hedgehog roll baking session, Michelle from Planet Leicester Bakers tweeted: “Wonderful hour with nursery children and ‘The Grannies’ from a #BakingaDifference care home yesterday. They finished creating and decorated their hedgehog buns and then had a sing along while they baked. #carehome #dementia #community #specialtreat @Learning4thAge ” 

We are very excited indeed to see the project developing in this way and to be bringing generations together in this way in order to create, develop and strengthen community connections between people and places. We hope to be able to do much more of this during the project.

We were really pleased to be working closely with members of the local community to run sessions in three different care homes making Diwali garlands during the recent festivities. Working with fantastic groups of students from the University of Leicester, we were keen to ensure that the long cultural tradition of marking the Festival of Light was spread to an older audience here in the city.

Lots of fun was had by everyone involved in our Diwali wreath making workshops, including this duo in Evington!

An abundance of flowers were created in total and these were used as decorations at the university afterwards… (although residents of care homes have since been asking what happened to the beautiful flowers and whether they could have them back if they have finished being used for the festival itself as they enjoyed them so much!)

The close concentration (caught on camera) of these two wonderful older women in sheltered housing as they enjoyed one of our regular art groups. Over the years, we have seen that painting is therapeutic and mindful for many people of all ages but particularly for people as they age.

We are delighted to have volunteers visiting older people across Leicester and Leicestershire regularly to support L4A’s ongoing art and craft groups. From Market Harborough to Quorn, we will try to support care settings to provide learning and arts activities for their residents.

Collaborating closely, residents of one extra care unit each create a separate part of these designs using lino printing techniques and then combine them together to form a final finished piece that is more than the sum of the separate parts.

These beautiful birds have been proudly painted by Neil who really enjoys the regular art group we host in his sheltered housing unit, even if he is usually the only male attending it. He has proudly framed this series of gorgeous British birds he has produced and we think that he is right to be proud of his work.

Doreen is very proud of her sunflowers and spent time studying Van Gogh’s original in order to create her own interpretation here at her own art group.

Of course, at L4A, we don’t mind if you’re recreating original masterpieces or inventing your own but we are delighted to be supporting so many older artists across Leicester and Leicestershire to feel proud of what they draw, paint, sketch, print, chalk, ink and much much more with us each and every week.

We are always looking for more volunteers to support our art groups across the city and county, or even to start new ones so please do get in touch with us via email or here if you think you could help out at all, or if you would like to support our work in another way – we’d love to hear from you!

Here at L4A, we believe that there is a first time for everything and, when we strive to enhance quality of life in care homes for older people, we are keen to ensure that people think outside the box and remain able to try new things.

To this end, we were delighted to host a recent RVS (Royal Voluntary Service) ‘First Time for Everything’ session bringing together residents from Agnes House care home and William House sheltered housing recently in a shared autumnal painting activity.

As well as learning new painting and colour techniques, the session was a huge success in bringing people together, helping people to share new learning experiences and having lots of fun.

At L4A, we always love to work with other charities and organisations too so please do get in touch with us (here: info@l4a.org.uk ) if you have some areas of shared interest that we could work on together.

RVS (Royal Voluntary Service) is a national charity built on local volunteering, giving support to people who need it in NHS hospitals and communities.

We were featured in the Daily Mirror on 10th May with our Baking a Difference funding win. Here is a link to the article and below are photos of this page.

We also featured in the local paper, the Leicester Mercury, on the same date and photos of this feature below too.

Thank you to both publications for focusing on positive news stories from care settings for older people and for sharing the great news about our charity winning £50,000 of funding to “dough good” work with!

Baking a Difference started last year when L4A received a small amount of funding from Awards for All to trial it in three places, Wyggeston Hospital, Harley Grange and Scraptoft Court.

“And it was absolutely fantastic,” says Fiona. “The principle is that through creative bread making sessions it brings people together. It sparks conversations, it keeps hands and minds busy, it offers physical activity and fun. It has something for everybody. People have a choice to be involved however much they wish, whether it’s in helping to make the bread from the start – or just eat it.

“We worked with a professional baker to offer group sessions, going through the process from the grain to the table. The baker, Michelle Stratford from Planet Leicester Bakers, would provide dough each week, and also look at a different part of the bread baking process. She even set up experiments, for example, to show what happens when fermentation creates gas, putting a balloon over a bottle to see it blow up.

“Bread baking appeals to many senses, from the smell to the touch and feel with kneading the dough and, of course, the taste when the bread is baked.

“It was really successful, enjoyed by everybody who engaged with it.”

Over the weeks interest grew. Fiona continues: “Some might have noticed sessions going on in the first week but not participated, in the second week they might have ‘come a little closer’ and enjoyed eating the bread and by the fourth week they were in the middle of it all!

“It got people talking about so many memories – the bread strikes, how their mothers used to make bread and the whole essence of family life really.

“Although for some conversation is impossible, there is a non-verbal element of bread baking where they can touch and feel, smell and taste. This means it is a very inclusive activity which engages people who could otherwise be left out.”

The £50,000 will help to widen the project to other care homes and sheltered housing in Leicester and Leicestershire and pay for the time and materials of the professional baker, as well as train and mentor volunteers from the community to offer Bread and Conversation sessions, so that the project has a sustainability and longevity.

“The idea will be to bring people into the homes and create ties with the community,” adds Fiona, “to create bonds of friendship and reduce any feelings of loneliness, isolation or boredom.

“We are so grateful for the support, that people appreciate and value what we do, and that we can continue to make a difference to so many older people’s lives.”

 

(This article is based on articles in the Leicester Mercury and The Daily Mirror on 10th May 2018.)

Baking a Difference is a project pioneered by L4A to bring older people in care homes and sheltered housing together with local communities, using bread baking activity. Following public voting the project has been awarded £50,000 from The People’s Projects and L4A’s project manager Fiona Smith couldn’t be more delighted.

“It is exceptionally lovely to have been chosen and voted for,” says Fiona. “There was a huge cheer when we found out we’d won. It is amazing how word can grow for an idea and we are really grateful to everyone who backed us.

“We are excited to get funding for Baking a Difference because, although it is a simple idea, there are so many ways to explore it – for example, discussing memories of bread at home, exploring bread from other cultures or bringing communities together to share bread.”

And she adds: “The news has arrived as L4A marks its 10^th anniversary so it couldn’t have come at a better time. What a way to celebrate!”