Family Support Group 17th January 2019

Bluebird Care Ealing's 2nd FSG a support network for our customers and their loved ones in a friendly and relaxed space to share their experiences and get to know others in similar circumstances.

Our second FSG and what fun we had!  Mary Stanton came in all smiles with her Live-in carer Patience. I could see Mary was eager to share some news. Our Registered Manager Dean Morley was in attendance along with Louise Telot the Events and Marketing Manager. Linda Olaneye whose mother is Margaret Musisi has dementia and is a customer of Bluebird Care. Linda was enthusiastic about this session and we used this time to support Linda who had a lot of questions for Mary and Patience.

We spoke about the memory café that Mary attends every Thursday and Linda has decided that she would like to bring her mum to the memory café as she feels this would benefit her greatly. Linda said that she was glad that she came and had the opportunity to meet Patience. She has arranged with Patience to meet her at the café with mum, so she now has someone she can go with – a wonderful connection made at this session aswell.

Mary was very keen to talk about the wonderful time she is having at the memory café and that she even met the mother of one the children she used to teach over 40 years ago. (I knew Mary was keen to share something this evening

When I highlighted the activities that I am scheduling for 2019, Linda suggested number and colour games which she feels would help mum. She spoke about her mother’s loves and passions and Linda was very proud to have this moment to share how skilful her mother was in her youth. She also spoke of her mother’s enjoyment being around children and needing the social interaction with her peers. This generated a discussion about doing and event or activity where the elderly and school children could interact. (We have a May Pole event coming up soon within the community where the children are part of a parade. I’m currently in discussions with the manager at the Brentham Social Club on the logistics and possibly having a section for our customers to have teas/refreshments and after the parade the children showcasing their bonnets to our customers and talking with them for 20-30 mins).

We also had cakes and tea and even had a game of cribbage which Dean showed us all how to play.