Friends of Aspen Court

With this project, we will purchase a specialist sensory case for the elderly as a tool to exercise sensory perception. The case will include a variety of equipment for residents with dementia and those who might need some sensory stimulation.

The sensory case contains tools which will give the residents the opportunity to exercise visual, olfactory and auditory perception. Musical gloves will give the residents the opportunity to play music with ease and the fruits card game will allow them to recognise and match fragrances with fruits.

Additionally, cushions and armchair covers of various textures will constitute a tool to explore tactile perception.

The kit will be a chance to build a bridge between trained volunteers and the residents, form new meaningful relationships developed through leisure whilst simultaneously improving their physical health. Our volunteers will contribute to improving the lives of residents by exercising day-to-day tasks which involve sensory stimulation. Thanks to this project, residents will gain confidence in recognising textures, sounds and scents and, consequently, improve their concentration and memory.

The Multisensory Equipment project is one more step forward in making residents’ lives more enjoyable and meaningful.

Lisa learned about Friends of Aspen Court at a job centre – the care home was a close to her home and her son’s nursery providing a perfect opportunity for her to start volunteering.

Friends of Aspen Court have carried out numerous projects to engage the residents in social activities –some of them include 1-on-1 conversations, music sessions and flower arrangement. Additionally, during a 21^st Century Tea Dance by Entelechy Arts the residents, volunteers and carers had an opportunity to get together and dance, sing and perform, which Lisa has particularly enjoyed.

Lisa has bonded with many of the residents, “I feel attached to them”, Lisa said, “just the other week we organised a BBQ to which I brought my little boy along. There was a lady who hardly ever smiled.  It was so heart-warming to see her smiling and singing to my son when she saw him – I have never seen her like that before”, Lisa explained. “Volunteering is a big eye opener”, Lisa explained the challenging nature of looking after residents, particularly those with dementia. “In the beginning I found it difficult to talk to some residents“, she confessed. “If you approach them with patience and friendliness, they do engage in the conversation, and that’s the most gratifying feeling”, she explained.

Lisa believes that volunteers need to be talkative as well as able to listen carefully to demonstrate to the resident that their voice is valued and truly matters.

Seeing residents smile and develop new skills is what motivates Lisa to continue volunteering and be there for the residents at Friends of Aspen Court. “More people should realise how beautiful an experience volunteering is”, Lisa would recommend to anyone to start volunteering as “it is such a small gesture from the volunteers but means the world to the residents”. “If you can spare an hour or two per week. It’s an amazing thing to do.”

Agenda

Movement and vocal warm up

Show dance duet between violet and Shakti

Mary: “It’s nice to be in a group, to be honoured. Often here we are not in a group. Often we are on our own. Only at meal time are you together and you don’t talk, because it’s busy busy.

Kens wife: “Music brings everyone together. Music is the food of love.”

Mary: I love classical music and classic FM

Kens wife: “Achievement is getting involved, otherwise they are left. Making the choice to get up and dance – he is remembering things when he does, Takes him back in time.”

Mary: “They come away in themselves and you do see a difference.”

Max: “I showed him a picture of where he worked on the tablet and it was amazing how much emotion and memory this brought up for him. Showed him pictures of how London looks now and canary wharf as he hasn’t seen them.”

Kens wife: “gets their brain going. Ball games, bit of exercise – you get the ball – exciting – then you have to think of a memory each time you receive the ball.”

Mary: “and what I have forgotten I can make up!”

Talking about another resident: She loves the vocal work, the humour – she is a comedian. She loves the song ‘we will meet again’

Kens wife:” Most important thing of all is TIME. Staff can’t give time because they are busy. I became like that – used to be the manager of a day centre on the isle of dogs in the 70’s.I became ‘miss 2 minutes’. Time is the hardest thing to give. Costs nothing and it’s the hardest thing to give.”

Vera: “Like the songs. I do sing –makes me happy. I go into my room – and that’s all I see and I don’t go anywhere. If I wasn’t in here- there wouldn’t be nothing for me.”

Vera was brought up round the corner from the nursing home. She remembers her dads coal van, He used to give them rides in it which was the most exciting thing they did all week. Their mother worked hard as a cleaner, life was hard, and she suffered from epilepsy and in those days there wasn’t much help so we all cared for her and because she was so busy she didn’t have much time for us. She mentioned different places in the area she used to go to.

Vera spoke about how challenging it was to have a colostomy bag now. How much this embarrassed her when she went out, so she tends not to go out and it’s unpredictable. She hates it when it begins to smell and has had to clean it herself. She got it from a botched operation. “How its stops me from going out in case it needs changing”

Kens wife spoke of being husband and wife. As the wife of a resident how they can still find ways of being man and wife – go to old haunts, Chrisp street market – eat fish n chips at their old café – and bring the grand kids to that café.

Kens wife used to be a carer, then assistant manager at a day centre – she named and painted a picture of the area around it – on the Isle of dogs in the 70’s. They used to go on lots of trips to Southend, on the river….every week.

Debra said that we can’t go to south end because they have got rid of all the disabled toilets.

Debra, Sharon, Kens wife and Mary all spoke about how in the 70’s and 80’s it was much easier to take people out on trips, and there were more resources to do this , so they went out on lots of trips. How now red tape turns homes and day centres into prisons. “Everything is so rule bound. We don’t go on trips – it’s taking away peoples human rights, how they used to go on trips to the sea side and on boats – stuff that would be considered a risk now.”

Mary used to work as a teacher in a special needs school and she used to take children with profound disabilities out on the boats on the Thames and now you can’t do that anymore.

Mary spoke about how the hospital threw her in to the home because they didn’t know where to put her. She was in hospital due to her dermatitis. She can still walk fine. But because all her family are in New Zealand they flung her in here. “They don’t know where to put me and I don’t know”

Beth spoke about doing a communal session at Poplar union, free tickets for residents to see a show there, ways to join the free sessions. Debra and Sharon will pop over and Beth will take them round. Beth is keen for them to lead with the stories and heritage of the area.

Concerns

Debra: The gaps in- between sessions, makes it pointless as you can’t build things up and residents change. If there are more sessions with no gaps it’s remembered more. A 3 week gap is a long time.

Shakti: We don’t have any time for one to one and this is a big concern of ours that we are missing these residents. The gaps make it very hard.

Mary:” We are not seeing you for three weeks. TERRIBLE!

Mary said she wished she could get a delivery form Lidl for her cotton clothes or go there as she has dermatitis.

Struck by how all three evaluation began to uncover parts of London with people’s stories and their real sense of the landscape – another map of London imbued with other meanings.  Unmasking real  and forgotten London

Through these evaluations it’s about finding our story – who we are – the interconnectedness – tapestry of the human story.

This project will create new social spaces, in which we will deliver 22 workshops over a year, and would involve the local community. The workshops will be related to the Arts and will include music and dance theatre, to entertain and include the residents, families and friends, and volunteers. Each arts session will be 2 hours, and will include a group workshop for up to 20 residents and family members supported by staff and volunteers in a communal space. The second group will involve one-to-one work for those who are unable to leave their rooms.

The project will be specifically designed with the residents in mind and will work to encourage cross-generational exchange. Creative professionals will work to undertake outreach work with activities co-ordinators. These music, dance and story-telling workshops will give the residents something to look forward to and will help them find new ways to express themselves, especially for those who struggle with communication. The workshops will culminate into two events, one in the care home half way through the year, and one journey to the Albany Tea Dance, marking the end of the year. The first event will bring into the home a specialist 21st Century Tea dance including live dance music from London’s top jazz musicians with the Spitz jazz collective. This will be an opportunity the youth groups to perform alongside residents. The event will be open to everyone in the care home and the local community.

Throughout the project, the workshops will be photographed and documented so that the residents and families can cherish the memories and look back on what they achieved. This project will be an exciting and social opportunity for the residents to meet new people and rediscover their talents, finding new and interesting ways to communicate, and having something fun to look forward to!

Spitalfields Music had recently performed at the home which was hugely enjoyed by the residents. The Friends currently have a bid at the assessment stage which will enable them to help residents with dementia through art and music.

As part of his role, he is patron of each of the friends groups in care homes.

Pictured here, he is talking to Nichole, project manager, and Kahlil who is newly appointed to the team. He was delighted to hear of the progress to date.

Living Arts was a multi-arts research project by musician Julian West and Spitalfields Music in Aspen Court care home and funded by Arts Council England.

During February and March 2016 Julian West, and musicians Amy May and Tim Cape, dancer/choreographer Clare Whistler and visual artist Lucy Steggals, visited Aspen Court care home for one morning a week. Working with the residents and the activities staff, they made music, dance, movement, stories, art and written words. In order to be fully responsive to the residents’ ideas, stories and conversations, the team didn’t pre-plan structured activities. They worked almost entirely through musical, physical and visual improvisation, with individual residents and in small groups. Sometimes the residents created whole stories, whilst at other times small gestures, comments, facial expressions and unexpected flourishes provided meaningful insights into another’s personality and individuality.

A culmination event presented the project to care and arts sector professionals and introduced the multi-arts approach, and staff mentoring and training was provided to Aspen Court’s activities staff.  As we expected there were few tangible outputs. However the interactions, creative conversations and shared experiences were deeper and more insightful than we had hoped – building strong meaningful relationships between activities staff and residents.

Further to this pilot project we are looking to develop a 3-year programme, embedding the Living Arts approach and values deeper in care homes, transforming the day to day environment through creative relationships between staff and residents.

After moving from Syria, R.S started to study Health and Social Care at Tower Hamlets College and has been doing so since early December of 2014. Her drive and motivation led her to successfully pass the certification exam to pass Level 1. Now, R.S is preparing for her Level 2 certification exam.

R.S volunteers with The Friends of Aspen Court Care Home. She describes the care home environment as one that is “perfect” for her. It has been easier for her to build and form relationships with the residents, after helping and caring for her grandmother who has battled dementia for years now.

R.S is grateful for how much she has learned in such a short time from working in the care home. It has taught her to be more open and accepting to not only residents in the care home, but to individuals around her community.

“The challenges I faced in the beginning benefited me when I was faced with difficult tasks later on,” says R.S. R.S has been supported greatly by the Activities Coordinator, who took R.S under her wing when she first started volunteering at the care home. According to R.S, having volunteers around is so valuable to the resident’s health and well-being on a daily basis. She now has the extra, but necessary expertise when it comes to finishing her degree and possibly moving into a field that will involve psychology and social care.