Dementia Positive

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dementiatogether.online is a great new resource developed by our good friend Claire Craig and colleagues to support meaningful activities for people with dementia during the pandemic when opportunities for face to face contact and social time have been drastically reduced. 

There are many suggestions grouped under different themes. These can be used directly or adapted or combined to suit individuals and their supporters. 



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​A Life More Ordinary gives people living with dementia and memory loss more choice, more control and greater access to leisure and cultural opportunities at The Dukes. Crucially, it is a project which takes place in ‘ordinary’ public settings, not in care or medical settings. The intention is that people can feel that they are able to come to an ‘ordinary’ social event, alongside other members of the public.
(quoted from website)





Home Performance
​This beautiful film illustrates the process of dance therapist Melanie Brierley working with Bob Hey, a man living with Parkinson's Disease.

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Click on the picture to watch the video and find out more about this exciting work, featuring sequences from one of the workshops. 
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Laugh Project
This is a highly innovative piece of research at Cardiff Metropolitan University which, over the last three years, has been exploring the possibility of creating play objects for people with advanced dementia.
 
John has taken part in the Advisory Group and also in some of the design t
ech workshops. 

Paintings provide window into the world of life with Alzheimer’s 

This lovely film featuring Jean Raichle was brought to our attention recently. It is well worth a look. (Click on picture.)

You can an article about Jean here, and find out more about her on her daughter's blog here. 
Alzheimer's: A different view

For more than a decade, US sociologist Cathy Greenblat has been travelling the world studying the treatments offered to people with dementia. Her mother and two of her grandparents all developed the disease - and she wanted to understand more about the condition.

In her book - Love, Loss and Laughter - she tells positive stories of ageing, dementia and end-of-life treatment, across seven countries. Take a look at some of her touching images here, as she explains what she discovered.


(quoted from BBC website)

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click on the picture to see the film

You Said You Liked The Dancing from Martin Clark on Vimeo.

This beautiful film features a collaboration with choreographer Janice Parker and people with dementia who are members of Town Break, Stirling. It was filmed at MacRobert Arts Centre in Stirling.  

A series of films giving a voice to people living with dementia


This project has involved our friend poet Karen Hayes and a set of film-makers with extremely interesting results. Click on the picture to go the website and see the films.








Konfetti im Kopf
This is really interesting. It is a film about a campaign in Germany which aims to change attitudes towards dementia. It is full of beautiful people, images, ideas and humour. We are so in need of this kind of thing here!

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This film from the BBC features a project in which 
university students spend time reading poetry to and with people living with dementia. 

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This website features content directly from people who have a diagnosis of dementia. It is a rich source of information, inspiration and hope.

             What about me?

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The
Changing Age project at Newcastle University has involved writers from New Writing North working with people with dementia. There is a lot of information about the work which you can access through the NWN link. Alongside the writing work they have produced an animated film, called 'What about me?', which is a delight. Scroll down the page to view it!

Immutable Passion

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This film tells the story of how Harry Hansen, an academic and artist, regained creative joy, energy and momentum after developing vascular dementia in his late fifties.

You can find out more about Harry and his work on facebook at
Immutable Passion and www.hansenpaintings.com

When we dance together, life is good

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Jabadao is a well-established organisation dedicated to enhance people's lives through movement and play.

This short video (click on picture then scroll down to bottom of page) features their work with older poeple with dementia - very beautiful!

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Aspire Project
This short film features the Aspire Project which is a partnership between Stirling Council and the European Social Fund. Alzheimer Scotland is also involved and teh project aims to enable care staff whose first language is not English to better communicate with and support people with dementia in care homes. We came across this through meeting the multi-talented Nicola Hodge!

                                                          

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Not a Still Life
Donna Beveridge is a woman who has a diagnosis of early onset Alzheimer's Disease. This video, Not a Still Life, shows Donna talking about her experiences, what is important to her and how she began to paint as a way of making sense of what was happening to her.

I can! I will! Idea Library

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This link will take you to a page of the 'I can! I will!' Idea Library, where Kathleen Downie writes about her experience of supporting persons with dementia in undertaking arts-based education work.

There is a lot of other good stuff on the site - click here to get to the main page.

Harmony - Bringing Life through Music

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This is a great little film about a great music project in Scotland - enjoy! 

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Alive Inside documentary
One of our friends recently brought this to our attention - really wonderful - and it features one of our favourite writers - Oliver Sacks.
Have a look at the trailer
here, and find out more on the documentary's website.