Expanding Dementia Support Groups
Guideposts has recently been expanding its dementia friendly support groups, Guideposts CONNECT. The latest addition is CONNECT in Newent, Gloucestershire, where people living with dementia and their carers can attend monthly sessions at the Community Centre, delivered in partnership with NHS Mythe Medical Practice and Newent Baptist Church. This follows hot on the heels of the relaunch of CONNECT at Tewkesbury, where numbers attending have doubled twice in two months since relocating to Priors Park Community Church. Both these groups have been able to develop thanks to funding from Benefact Group.
The groups are a lifeline, with many people living with dementia and their carers isolated. The National Institute for Health and Care Research report that a third of people with mild-to-moderate dementia experience loneliness is backed up by many of the people Guideposts supports, who don’t others except when they attend their CONNECT groups.
What is a CONNECT group?
In addition to friendship and social contact over activities and a cuppa, each Guideposts CONNECT group has a member of staff who offers information and advice. Members of the group are also willing to share what has worked for them, and so there is benefit from the collective experience of others in the group.
Session activities vary each week, and can include talks, games, art and craft activities, break-out groups for carers, and most importantly an opportunity to meet others who understand.
Ken, a member of the Tewkesbury CONNECT group told us “Every time I come here, you make me laugh and I forget about my problems and my loneliness. I wish it was every day!”
“If we have a problem, whatever it may be, our group coordinator sorts it for us. If she does not know the answer, she will do her very best to find out and let us know.”
Katie, wife of Dave who has dementia said “Here, Dave is treated like a human being, nobody judges him. If he says something inappropriate, nobody minds, they understand. He absolutely loves it here and they have even given him his own special big mug.”
When and where are CONNECT groups now?
The Newent CONNECT group currently meets on the last Tuesday of each month, at the Newent Community Centre. Guideposts is hoping to increase the frequency, thanks to the support of funding from Benefact Group.
Additional funding for Newent and Tewkesbury CONNECT groups has come from Tewkesbury Town Council, the W G Edwards Charitable Foundation, D’Oyly Carte Charitable Trust, Leach Fourteenth Trust, and the Hobson Charity.
This brings Guideposts’ Gloucestershire CONNECT groups to 6, adding to groups in Gloucester, Stroud, Tewkesbury, Whitminster and Wotton-under-Edge, and a total of 9 including Guideposts’ Oxfordshire CONNECT groups in Witney, Kidlington and Carterton.
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