Monthly Archives: March 2013
Weaving the words of dementia patients into poetry
Words of dementia sufferers woven into poetry by Susanna Howard
Saturday 23 March 2013
A poet is working with dementia patients to
weave their words into poetry. Susanna Howard, sits with them, often in silence,
jotting down whatever words they utter, and then uses only these utterances to
put a poem together for her collections, Living Words.
The results are poignant and profoundly emotional. At times, they also hint at the failings in our care system. “So many people are saying they want to be cared for and how to be cared for, that they are not listened to, that they are not heard. They are saying ‘this is what I want. This is what I need’,” says Howard.
She works with the terminal patients as well as the elderly, and says healing through words can’t be underestimated. Her refreshing approach exposes the lie behind the cliche of dementia as the “silent” living death. “I think we have a wealth of words inside us throughout our lives and when you have dementia, they are still inside you”, she says.
Howard, whose work has been funded by the Arts Council in the past, has created an innovative collection of poetry books in collaboration with dementia suffers, even though with advanced states of the degenerative illness.
Poems from a recent residency, staged in collaboration with EnglishPEN, can be viewed on 9 April at Europe House, in London.
Concert orchestra is in tune with Alzheimer’s
Concert orchestra is in tune with Alzheimer’s
A club which helps dementia sufferers recall old memories is being tuned to perfection with the help of the BBC Concert Orchestra.
For three dates only, four instrumentalists will be providing musical accompaniment to the workshops which not only provide stimulating experiences for Alzheimer’s patients, but also offer much-needed support and social opportunities for them and their carers.
Singing For The Brain, an initiative from the Alzheimer’s Society, has been running classes in Hemel Hempstead for around two years. There are more than 11,000 people in Hertfordshire living with dementia today and across the UK the figure tops 820,000.
The foundation for the innovative project lies in groundbreaking research into the effects of music on the brain.
Proposed changes to mental health services in Norfolk and Suffolk
Proposed Trust Service Strategy
Trust Service Strategy – how you can have your say
Clinicians in Norfolk and Suffolk have been proposing changes to mental health services for the next four years. The proposals were sparked by budget challenges facing the whole of the NHS – NSFT is facing a 20% reduction in its spend in four years’ time compared with today.
But rather than just make cuts, our clinicians are seeing this as an opportunity to redesign services which are fit for the future and offer real alternatives to hospital care and the care we currently provide. Everything has to fit within our new budgets, but of more importance is the need to make sure all services provide good and safe outcomes for service users and their family carers.
