GL11 – grant recipient - Barnwood Trust

GL11 – grant recipient

Responding to local need

GL11 is a highly-responsive project, driven by community need.

It prides itself on developing services through consultation with local people and via well-established links with local health professionals.

In 2008, funding from Partnership of Older People’s Projects (POPPs) enabled GL11 to run an innovative ‘Try to Remember’ pilot scheme. This proved highly successful both in helping people with dementia to capture their experiences in poetry and in helping carers to engage with the ‘person’ rather than the ‘patient’ – a true example of ‘personhood’ in action.

After a successful application, GL11 received a £16,100 grant from Barnwood Trust to help them extend this important project.

Capturing the individual

‘Try to Remember’ links people with dementia with a writer, Karen Hayes, to capture their memories, stories and life experiences – in their own words.

Working on a one-to-one basis, Karen engages each person and allows them to take the conversation wherever they wish it to go. Acting as a scribe, she records each person’s words without corrections and then forms poems, which are delivered back to the authors in a series of read-back sessions.

Families and carers are also invited to these sessions, which often prove moving.

Supporting insightful care

A copy of the poem is placed in each participant’s notes so that carers have a sense of them as fully-rounded individuals with rich personal histories; something that promotes a beneficial change in attitude.

For example, Karen observes that she has felt a ‘change of pace’ in the care home environment; a change of tone and pitch in staff members working with residents, and an acceptance of her own presence as genuinely beneficial rather than just a ‘novelty’ or ‘quirky fad’.

In addition, the artistic work emerging from Try to Remember is vibrant, touching, funny and moving. This will be celebrated in a special anthology of the poems, featuring photographs of landscapes and local landmarks, which have emerged as a strong theme.

Widening the benefits

Karen’s sessions are complimented by a series of interactive workshops aimed at groups such as care home and day centre staff, and volunteers.

These sessions help participants to try out and develop their communication skills, for example, by discovering the importance of eye contact, touch and listening, and to find the means to continue the project at home and in other settings.

Another important audience engaged in this project is young people; the carers of the future.

For example, a group of sixth form Health and Social Care students at Rednock School in Dursley were clearly energised by the experience:

‘[I] just wanted to thank you and Karen, the workshop was absolutely excellent and the students were talking about it in the lessons on the next day. Karen’s delivery style would rate as outstanding on OFSTED criteria. Looking forward to continuing this work with you, Karen and the students.’

Joyce Holborow, Deputy Head, Rednock School

A meaningful difference

In terms of the most important people, those with dementia, the impact of this project is clear.
Take Gwen Cleall for example, a resident at Henlow Court in Dursley. At the end of one session she stated:

‘I’d like to say something. I’d like to thank you for listening to me. I’d like to thank you for making us listen to each other.’

An extract from Gwen’s poem reads:

‘We all, we hope
Leave something of value behind’

A brighter future

Further residences are now being sought for Karen, and GL11 is actively seeking further funding to increase the training and workshop elements of the project.

In this way, GL11 hopes to continue improving social care for those living with dementia as well as challenging preconceptions about them and raising awareness of the disease – and how we can all make a difference.

As GL11 observes, this is not just a project limited to people with dementia; this is a project for society.

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