A Sisyphean task

It is that time of year when the gardeners begin the Sisyphean task of sweeping up the leaves. It is said that this year is going to be an excellent autumnal display – ‘living art’ was how one gardener described it as. Parkhaven is lucky that it does have the immense gift of land (last month’s blog related how we use that land for therapeutic purposes).

But as well as the Sisyphean task of sweeping up the leaves, there is another uphill struggle and that is the debate and open discussion that there needs to be about dementia. Terry Pratchett, author, who was recently diagnosed with dementia is certainly doing an excellent job to raise the profile of this very debilitating disease. He wrote on the day of the launch of the Alzheimers’s Society report Dementia: out of the shadows a letter to the Times (7.10.08) in which he argues for an end to the stigma and misunderstanding that surround this disease. The first step he writes is ‘to talk openly about dementia because it’s a fact well enshrined in folklore, that if we are to kill the demon then first we have to say its name’. We are trying to do this at our Trust.

Currently the Trust is supporting hundreds of people with dementia. We have an extensive menu of services to support people. We have separate day services for older and young people with dementia which offer space and grounds to walk, gardening, yoga and music sessions and lunches out. There is choice and hopefully something for everyone including carers. Note books go back and forth so there is communication between relatives and the Centre and a monthly newsletter. Next month we start on a new venture: a weekend away for four of our service users, an opportunity for a holiday. There are also opportunities for short breaks in our newly refurbished home or a permanent placement. As well as speaking its name, those with dementia and their carers need excellent services and support. The Trust is endeavouring to do its bit.

We hope to give people hope and laughter and will certainly be playing our part ‘to bring dementia out of the shadows’ to kill the demon.

Hilary Rowland

Gardening at Parkhaven, for people with dementia

Despite the credit crunch and the depressing news that is hitting us daily, there is good news. Recently the Trust was awarded a grant to help people keep gardening.

Three days a week, Parkhaven’s gardeners Keren and Richard work with service users in the gardens around the Willow Day Centre and at The Haven, our plot a hundred yards away, where there are nice greenhouses, raised beds, an orchard, doves, chickens and geese. We sow seeds, take cuttings, pot on, plant up our beds, fill hanging baskets, pick flowers and vegetables, feed the chickens. Come and look round!

Gardening can really help people with dementia: it keeps you fit, it’s good to be outside, contact with nature and the seasons inspires hope, and the planning and sequencing skills involved in gardening seem to be particularly effective in preserving mental agility. The grand name for this is ‘horticultural therapy’.

We have recently been awarded a grant of £95,000 from the Henry Smith Charity to develop the work we do at The Willow, so that anyone with dementia living in the community can garden for a few hours with us at Parkhaven. Carers can come too, or might enjoy a well-earned break instead.

We will also be helping people with dementia look after their own gardens: they get some exercise (but we do the heavy work), they feel good about their garden, they get some company. We hope it might help some people with dementia stay in their homes for longer. We’re not doing people’s gardens for them, we’re gardening with them.

We’re calling the project ‘Keep gardening’. We will shortly be appointing a new gardener James, who’ll soon be out and about in gardens in the local community with the Parkhaven trailer. The grant allows us to offer a free service for two years.

If you know someone who might be interested in any of these activities, as a service user or as a volunteer, contact a member of the Willow staff or Richard on 0151-527 3667 or richard.ayres@parkhaven.org.uk.

So keep gardening, it can make you feel good.

The Parkhaven Blog:

Changing times

This is the first blog for Parkhaven Trust. It is our intention that this will be updated monthly initially. Those reading the blog are probably clear what it is but many like my Dad, still ask what a blog is. The best description I have read is that it is an online journal. And that is just what Parkhaven’s blog will endeavour to be: a journal about events and an exploration of issues that are relevant to Parkhaven Trust and those that use our services.

For this first blog I thought it would be worth retelling the story of Parkhaven. Parkhaven Trust was established in 1888 as the Maghull Homes for Epileptics. It was set up for people with epilepsy. There used to be a farm, workshops and a school. Over the years the needs of people with epilepsy have changed dramatically with the improvements of medication and there is no longer the need for specific residential accommodation for people with epilepsy.

Thus the charity has transformed its services and it continues to change them to respond to the changing expectations and needs. Now Parkhaven is responsible for running a nursing home, a residential home for older people and a specialist home for people with dementia. The Trust has recently spent £2m on refurbishing and extending this home and using all the best evidence about how to design the home to make service users as independent as possible. Colour coding has been used and those moving back into the home were able to choose their colours. Pink was the most popular!

In addition to the residential care we now provide a thriving day service for people with dementia. People who attend the day service have the opportunity of gardening, doing yoga, singing, dancing and meals out. It is a place where there is laughter and enjoyment. There is no doubt that dementia is on the agenda as demonstrated by the recent publication of the new dementia strategy which the Department of Health is consulting on http://www.dh.gov.uk/

Our forefathers left us the immense gift of land, it is our responsibility to nurture and protect it and use it for those that now need it. Over the past four years we have had to get the Trust back on track financially. This we have done by concentrating on those that use our services and being very clear and focused about where we should be heading. I suspect many of us have been in awe of the excellent results of the GB cycling team at the Beijing Olympics. Their performance director puts this down not to one particular thing but ‘the aggregation of marginal gains’. I think we can all learn from this – it is about taking an interest and improving on everything. This is what we are endeavouring to do here.

Hilary Rowland Chief Executive Parkhaven Trust