This enabled people from the more northerly parts Scotland to participate in discussion and met our aim of working on a wider geographical basis.Even though the conference was held in May the harvest theme seemed to resonate with our participants! We were delighted to welcome over 50 delegates to the very pleasant conference venue, the Bishop’s Palace which is part of the Eden Court developments. Financial support from ACTS and the Scottish Episcopal Church in Society Committee was very much appreciated.
Our morning speaker Gaynor Hammond talked about the use of memory boxes (see also next page) and the importance of these during ‘transitions’. She was speaking particularly about movement into residential care but I felt that she could just as well have spoken about any kind of transition.
Professor John Starr looked at the demographics of individual ageing in Scotland in the context of economic, health and social policy. He gave us a very engaging talk and helped us understand the wider context in which we experience ageing. We divided into group work sessions which covered a variety of topics including the spiritual tasks of ageing, worship and dementia and voicing the spiritual. The expected rain didn’t materialise so that we could get to the different “break out” venues without getting soaked.
During the day we talked a lot about the importance of relationships and how relationships are made and sustained through story telling and listening. It is our relationships with each other that help us understand ourselves and our own ageing. Our gift to each other is to offer ourselves in friendship and to faithfully try to understand and celebrate ageing.
The delegates all felt by the finish of the conference that this should be the beginning of something important rather than the end of the conference. We hope that we can build on this feeling and aspiration and take our learning from the conference back into our faith communities, building on a very successful and encouraging day. We will be setting up some further North of Scotland events which will help to do this.
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| Dr Harriet Mowat |
INVERNESS CONFERENCE– Memory Box – Gaynor HammondGaynor Hammond, Faith in Elderly People, Leeds, spoke enthusiastically and inspirationally about the benefits of Memory Boxes. These boxes can contain meaningful memory joggers, personal items and photos which bring to life the memories and experiences of older people and enable those caring for them to have a much stronger insight into why things are important to them. This reinforces individuality and identity and provides real opportunities for carers to develop conversations and make contact. To illustrate the importance of identity Gaynor produced her own memory box which contained her nurse’s uniform because that had been a really important part of her life. This prompted the following illustration:
Gaynor had visited the home of a fairly unresponsive older woman with dementia who had been a nurse. One day the Community Nurse visited, wearing her uniform. There was instant recognition of the ‘nursing sister’ and her husband was commanded to produce tea using the best china cups. The ability to identify with the nurse was strongly embedded and enabled recognition and communication however brief.
another illustration Gaynor offered:
The staff in a care home were finding one of the older male residents very challenging. He seemed to be very resistant to help and was swearing a lot. They were surprised at this given that he was a retired minister. However, using this information Gaynor was able to open a discussion with him about his faith and the kind of routine he was used to having before he entered the home. It transpired that he was accustomed to saying a prayer and reading his Bible first thing in the morning and that he had not been doing this since he had moved into the home. When Gaynor did this with him he became a lot calmer and willing to co-operate.
The discussion with the staff on the importance of this routine for him brought up the issue of religion and staff involvement. Several staff ‘didn’t do religion’ as they had no personal belief. Gaynor challenged this. They would be happy to read the newspaper to him but did they believe everything they read in it? The critical factor was that by enabling this resident to continue with his daily faith practice he became calmer and mutual benefit was derived.
By the time Gaynor had finished talking we all wanted to create our own memory boxes.
Professor John Starr provided a stimulating PowerPoint presentation entitled
“Your Very Good Health”.
In 1948, when the NHS was founded, a government information film, “Your very good health”, described the future in glowing terms. Sixty years on and the health landscape has changed far beyond the imagination. Life expectancy has increased substantially and, whilst up to the 1960s this was largely due to reductions in child and early adult mortality, the main reason for people living longer over the last thirty years is the new phenomenon of mass survival beyond the age of seventy. But to what extent are people able to enjoy a ‘very good health’ once they pass three score and ten?
There are many measures of health – mortality, disease, frailty, disability, self perceived, socially constructed – that relate to a greater or lesser degree to the wish to be included, remain independent, have more choice and enjoy life. The increase in life expectancy brings more opportunities, but it also brings an increase in absolute terms in the number of years a person is likely to live with disability. UK statistics indicate that there is a shift in such disability being largely attributable to physical problems towards a greater proportion being caused by problems with mental health. Moreover, despite older people being generally better off materially, not only in absolute terms but also relative to the rest of society, there is no evidence for them being more satisfied with their lives, and their mental stress has increased over recent years.
These changes are likely to have a major impact on carers.
The substantial loss of care home places over the last decade has not been matched by an equivalent increase in social service provided community care. Some of this ‘care gap’ has been filled by increases in care provided in acute hospitals, but the rest, around 6 million hours per year, is either unmet or has fallen to informal carers. It is estimated that informal, unpaid carers provide around £7.6 billion of care per year, which compares with the £.8 billion allocated to health boards in Scotland annually, equivalent to £1,500 per person in Scotland. The support of carers presents a major challenge in the years ahead.
There were three participative workshops
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| The Spiritual Tasks of Ageing with Dr Harriet Mowat |
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| Voicing the Spiritual with the Rev Jim Simpson |
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| Worshipping with People with Dementia which was facilitated by Mary Moffett & Rev Sue Kirkbride |
“The workshop about Worship gave me lots of inspiration and ideas to use in my own parish.”
