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Activity for Natasha Howard

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Worries around telephone banking

This challenge is based on experiences we have heard: My mum who is 64 was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s disease last year and now lives alone since dad passed away recently. I’ve seen how mum has found it difficult taking over the finances, which is something dad always looked after. Mum still understands money and that bills need paying, but she worries and struggles with doing her banking over the telephone. The security questions the bank ask her make her anxious and...

by Natasha Howard (Admin)
1 week ago

Reaching people without Internet access

What about supporting people who are needing to ‘shield’ or ‘self-isolate’ but who don’t have access to The Internet? From previous projects and pieces of work, we have found that this can often be a challenge anyway, for example in terms of accessing information, but with the current pandemic and a lack of social interaction, this could make it even harder for people as a lot of the solutions for social interaction are using The Internet, such as video calls. How can we reach those who...

by Natasha Howard (Admin)
7 months ago

Getting a dementia diagnosis during a pandemic

We know the difficulties in getting a dementia diagnosis for people at the best of times. We know in pieces of work that have taken place that it can be harder for people to receive a diagnosis. For example, in England, it is estimated that there are over 210,000 people with dementia without a diagnosis, and diagnosis rates in local areas range from around 50% to over 90%. What about people who are currently needing to self-isolate or ‘shield’ without a diagnosis of dementia? How can they...

by Natasha Howard (Admin)
7 months ago

How do we keep connected to those in care homes in 'lock-down'?

Currently, there are many people out there with a loved one in a care home – what do they do when the care home is in 'lock-down'? What can they do if they can’t see their loved one? And what about if their dementia develops and they won’t recognise them a few months down the line? How can we best support people in this situation?

by Natasha Howard (Admin)
8 months ago

Perhaps something for the workshops...

Remember randomised coffee trials where you opted in to be randomly paired up with someone for a coffee catch up? It used to be a good way of meeting people. For us to do something similar as a directorate, once you've been paired with someone, you can arrange a day between you, which may include a video or phone catch up at the start of your day, and then you can decide if you want to continue checking in with each other through Skype or another channel that day. You could share your preferences beforehand. The randomised coffee catch ups could be once a week, once a fortnight, once a month - whatever suits.

Thanks for sharing these great ideas - for those you have been doing in practice and the impact it is making, and the other suggestions too!

Thanks Jennifer, some really helpful thoughts and ideas here. Thanks for also highlighting another potential challenge around whether families would be aware of their family member developing dementia at this time, particularly if they aren't able to visit one another.

Thanks for this Jennifer and for sharing such kind and helpful ways to support others through this challenging time! And thank you for also highlighting how phone calls may work better for some people but are not for everyone.

Some really important points and ideas here Margaret, thanks for sharing these!

This is a really helpful way of breaking it down Mike, thank you!

And absolutely - you've hit the nail on the head there! In the work that we do, we ensure that any solution found must be based on what we hear from the people experiencing it, and developed with them. From this, we can get a deeper understanding of the challenges people are facing and why, and by working together, we can build something beneficial for the people that need it the most.