Four Dorset women are filling the gaps in services for the county’s dementia sufferers
Dorset has more than 7,000 people living with dementia, and that figure is expected to double by 2035. In North Dorset, four women have responded not by waiting for the system to catch up, but by building the support they could see was missing.
As World Alzheimer’s Day approaches, they talk to Dorset Life about the work they do in the county.
Making memories with bacon sandwiches
Sarah Rampton runs In Jolly Good Company, which offers older people in Dorset activities including gardening to music – even cooking, as Sarah explained: ‘Our Jolly Days include cookery sessions with people who aren’t allowed near ovens any more. For example, we went into Shaftesbury Hospital to work with some of the elderly ladies and asked them what they would like to cook. They all said they wanted to make bacon sandwiches for the hospital – so we did. There were all these trays of bacon sandwiches and they loved it.
‘I’m vegetarian but I went with it. It was about them not me. People still talk about that day.’
In Jolly Good Company is based in Wimborne St Giles and has another six venues across North Dorset.
‘We work together as organisations as it stops duplication, but it also gives people more choice. We’re into working creatively with people – we just had a theatre company working with the people who attend. And we’ve done a photo portrait session called Behind the Lines. We work hard to go beyond the stereotypes of being older.’
Memorabilia is important in dementia care. Volunteer Tina Barton recalled the reactions of residents in the care home where her mother lives when they saw old telephones and a vintage Hoover.
‘Everyone got really excited when they saw all these things, and could explain how to use them.’
Sally Nutbeem also uses familiar objects in her work with Mindful, another North Dorset-based support group. Mindful runs memory cafes as support groups for people with dementia in Gillingham and Stalbridge.
‘That moment when you have someone with dementia who is losing their ability to do something and then they react and their faces just light up … it’s magical to see.
‘We do use memorabilia, but we also have a lot of music and craft activities. We encourage people to participate and enjoy themselves.’
Liz Rose runs Men At The Farm, which is based at Madjeston Animal Park on Wednesdays.
‘We started Men At The Farm last September. It’s not specifically for people with dementia – 90 per cent of our attendees have it, but we also have people with depression and Parkinson’s Disease. We do anything that needs to be done on the farm, and there’s that male camaraderie. They’ll have conversations with each other that they might not have elsewhere. ‘We also work to their strengths, so if someone has carpentry experience, they can make things – if they want to, of course. Some work on the allotment and grow vegetables.
‘We have volunteers who have had financial difficulties. That’s really important as they can give something back. It’s quite early, but we have seen an enormous change in our gentlemen’s moods. We had one gentleman on antidepressants who is no longer taking them. It’s like a family really. It also keeps you fit – we always walk to see the animals outside. It’s a safe environment.
‘As we have grown, we have a good ratio of volunteers to the men. We have 12 men attending at the moment.’
Find the money and Do It Yourself
All the projects are volunteer-led, apart from In Jolly Good Company which has some salaried staff. Volunteers are critical, and finding enough of them is one of the biggest challenges. All the projects have ‘just enough’ but a higher ratio is needed for outdoor activities. And more are required to allow regular volunteers a break.
‘If we didn’t have volunteers we would not be able to continue with this work,’ says Tina. ‘Between us we try to cover most days.’
Tina has a singing group called Melodies Remembered which runs fortnightly in Shaftesbury.
‘I started this when my other half got early onset dementia. I started taking him to any group that was available, and I found Jollys which was the only thing in Shaftesbury. Then the funding was pulled.’
In 2019, the Alzheimer’s Society lost a major local government contract to provide community-based support for people with dementia and their families. That left a huge void in Dorset, particularly in the north. Tina said: ‘It all just went … so we had a bit of a turnaround. I thought – “how can all these people lose their thing?” That’s what motivated me.
‘Music is the last thing the brain stops understanding. If there’s one thing in Shaftesbury for these people, it has to be musical. There was nothing, and it just wasn’t good enough. So I decided to go out and find some money to do something.’ Melodies Remembered celebrated its fifth birthday last year and has appeared at Shaftesbury Fringe.
Support for carers
Usually people find out about local groups by word of mouth, but all four women frequently encounter people who struggle to navigate the complex system of social support. Carers need help. Tina explains: ‘The biggest lesson I learned was that it’s not a failure when loved ones go into care. It was 100 times better, and I was no longer exhausted. Now I could go and have a laugh and a chat. You are just led to feel you have failed and you haven’t.’
Sarah says financial pressure keeps some carers going longer than they should: ‘How can they pay the £1,800 a week fees, or whatever? How do they get their heads around it? Because these people are also wondering how it all works.’
For Liz, the carers at Men at the Farm have naturally found peer support from each other. However she frequently helps people trying to cope: ‘Only last week I met a lady who was desperate for help. She had been given a leaflet and told she would get a phone call “in a year”. In a year! You wouldn’t do that to someone with cancer, so why is it OK for dementia?’
The women also see inequalities across parts of Dorset. Even within a village setting there can be people who are unable to access services because of mobility issues. Sarah added: ‘There are people who live in accommodation which looks great from the outside, but the inside hasn’t been improved at all, so they are unable to do anything. There are lots of hidden issues in rural villages.’
For all four women, the value of these groups is measured less in numbers than in what changes for the people who come through the door – and for the carers alongside them. Liz sees it in the small things.
‘It’s in our stories – the stories we all have about how people have changed. And sometimes it’s the little things like enabling a carer to go and get a cup of coffee. We enable people to get together, too. We’re all very mindful of carers, because without that support, the person they are caring for would not be able to stay at home.
‘In North Dorset we have just become used to creating our own groups because we have to – otherwise there would be nothing. So there is something very special about what we do here. These groups have grown from our passion and desire to get things done.’
World Alzheimer’s Day is on Monday 21 September.
Need support or want to find out more?
Mindful:
mindfulmemorycafes.com
Melodies Remembered:
shaftesbury-tc.gov.uk/sddfc
Men at the Farm
madjestonanimalpark.co.uk/men-at-the-farm
In Jolly Good Company
injollygoodcompany.com
