sure many of you have been inspired by
the amazing talks that you’ve heard and
the people that you’ve no doubt met
you’ve had breaks to get up stretch your
legs go outside get some fresh air have
a cup of tea normal stuff but what if
would invited you here today sat you
down given you one two minute talk and
then left you SAT there in silence until
now how do you think you’d feel probably
asking for a refund right well that has
been a reality for many people living in
with dementia in care today and it will
be tomorrow and the day after because if
you live with dementia in a care home
you get on average two minutes of
so living with dementia which is
essentially brain failure means that
that normal everyday stuff that we’ve
been doing today becomes really
challenging so making a cup of tea you
might forget to boil the kettle you
might no longer recognize what a tea bag
is some of the early symptoms of some
dimensions is lack of initiation so you
might need someone to prompt
conversation with you to guide you
through without judgment so that if your
words tend to get jumbled you don’t feel
like you failed their recurrently
800,000 people living with dementia in
the UK and that figure is set to soar to
over two million by 2050 one that means
dementia will affect all of us whether
it’s directly or indirectly so back at
the end of 2012 I was sat at the kitchen
table having a cup of tea with my nan
she was 93 at the time very Sparky but
had short-term memory failure so I said
to her house the day centre going ham
and for the sixth time that our she told
me all about her new boyfriend Dave now
to mere 83 years old she was very proud
to tell me that Dave was her toyboy
very happy she was they used to sit in
hold hands but then she got a serious
look on her face and she said it’s
lovely to be with people my own age it’s
just there’s not much to do well that
got my brain wearing at the time I was a
full-time artist and I was looking for
excuse to get out the studio to be
honest so I thought what if I go and
teach painting and she thought I was
pretty good at it so I find around a few
care homes and found it astonishingly
easy to get booked to do art workshops
so I arrived at the doorstep got the
first care home and there’s a sign next
to the door and it said the name of the
care home and then the letters e.m I and
no idea what I meant but I press the
buzzer and I got assured in by kara and
I stood in the lobby and she hurried off
and it was assault on my senses there
was the stuffy heat that hit me the
smell that overwhelm me and the cool
bells ringing out and I waited and I
waited nobody came back so I wandered on
through to the lounge and that’s when I
saw armchair after armchair of people
sat in silence not doing anything the TV
droning in the background a lady in
uniform caught my eye and she said oh
and could you just go and set up over
there so if I wondered started unpacking
my paints and then a lady wandered over
and she said to me are you my mother and
I looked and I thought oh she’s about 85
right so I thought well this is not a
standard residential care home and it
was later that night that i found out
that emi stands for elderly and mentally
infirm which frankly is as archaic as it
sounds and it suggests that dementia has
really been left in the dark ages so
that afternoon as well as being thrown
in at the deep end with people with
dementia I watched well-meaning carers
plunking down cups of tea in front of
people that weren’t even aware they’d
been put there now this is not about
bashing care homes and it’s certainly
not about bashing care home carers
indeed they are the true heroes in this
story because they do some of the
hardest jobs in society on the lowest
pay but what I realized was they were
struggling to communicate with the
people they were looking after they
didn’t understand their needs how much
easier and more fulfilling their jobs
would be if only they could talk to them
no wonder then that the staff turnover
rate in care was running about
twenty-five percent and I later found
out that those carriers it only ever had
one hours dementia training so I went
home that night and I googled and I
googled and I googled I didn’t sleep for
about three days I wanted to learn
everything why was it like this was this
it will be all working so hard all our
lives to end up living somewhere like
this it occurred to me I could put my
dog in kennels and I’d cause a riot if
it didn’t get walked at least once a day
but you could put my nan in a care home
and it’s entirely possible she would
never step outside again this struck me
as wrong so I knew I had to do something
and that’s when I started the wheels in
motion to create my social enterprise
engaging create and we have one clear
social mission to transform quality of
life for people living with dementia and
those that care for them so for many
years I worked in media in London big
media organizations TV organizations
advertising and it was fun but I didn’t
really feel like maybe it was the right
career for me my suspicions were
confirmed one night when I got an email
from my boss at the time and she said
rather panic Rachel I need you to spend
10,000 pounds by the end of the week
otherwise I’m worried we’re not going to
get that bit of budget back right what
exactly do you want me to spend 10,000
pounds on oh well just champagne that
will do it will store it okay um that’s
when it hit me I felt sick suddenly all
those charity ads you see on TV flashed
before my eyes how many people’s lives
we could change if we actually
and that money wisely I knew it was time
for a career change and 28 years old I
had a rather premature midlife crisis so
I did what everybody does in a crisis I
went backpacking and along the way
rediscovered a bit about myself so I
retrained as a Montessori teacher I
rediscovered my passion for painting and
I took up a psychology degree all of
which was really interesting but every
time I did something I felt yes not what
I want to do in my life but that moment
in the care home that’s what I need my
purpose I will say though all those
wrong turns were really helpful all of
those things i did have come together to
fuel what I do today so take the
Montessori training we learn how we
should focus on what people can do not
on what they can’t do we learn about how
the environment can help or hinder
people when they’re doing daily tasks in
advertising we would never launch a
product or service until we’ve done a
focus group get the opinions of the
people that are going to be using it and
yet here i was going back time after
time to places that seemed to work
against the very people they’re meant to
be helping let alone asking the opinions
of those living and working there as how
they want it to be but i did go back day
centres care homes i was there to teach
painting but in reality very little
painting happened people wanted to talk
sometimes I understood often I didn’t
but here was someone sitting willing to
be part of their reality trying to
connect but what could I use to engage
everybody so I tried lots of different
things and I failed at lots of different
things but after hundreds of hours of
asking observing listening I finally had
a program they could spark conversation
with even those that had communication
problems it wasn’t painting but it was
using historic paintings to spark
conversations
so by combining artworks and a clear
structure of questions I found I was
able to guide people through a
conversation so it’s a bit like having a
map so the great thing about art is that
there’s no right and wrong we all have a
different response to artworks dementia
or no dementia by looking at a painting
in front of us we could focus on the
response not on something a lot of
people with dementia struggle with
memory sure people often told stories
but if they didn’t want to tell stories
or they couldn’t remember there was no
pressure they could just tell the story
in unpicked the story in the painting it
was perfect people’s anxiety levels drop
and conversation started to flow I mean
if it had a broken leg I wouldn’t have
asked them to hop on it would I so it
seemed perfect to me that here we were
in the moment it was like a master class
in mindfulness so it’s like a journey of
discovery take George for example i went
to a care home one afternoon and I saw
George and he was in the reception and
he was trying every single door trying
to get out he was really distressed so I
invited him to come and sit down with me
to explore some art with the group and
he looks a bit hesitant but then came
over and I put this painting up on the
screen and immediately George SAT up and
he said oh well I’ll tell you what you
got there that cloud of smoke that’s
where the steam trains just gone into
the station he was right in one so he
then went on to tell us about his life
as a steam train driver in Devon the
carers around had their mouths wide open
they didn’t know this about George they
hadn’t known anything about his life and
not only that now his anxiety had
dropped and he was being part of a group
having social interaction then it was
Margaret and the Margaret had no words
she’s come and sit and look at the art
and smile and nod but she never said
anything
until I showed her this piece it was
right at the end of a long session and I
said to her Margaret when you look at
this painting how does it make you feel
and she looked me straight in the eyes
SAT up and said when I look at that
piece the mood and the color move right
through me so since we launched ignite
at the end of last year they’ve been
over 150 sessions done that’s a thousand
interactions really with people with
dementia which is great but you heard
the numbers it’s not enough so I’m
determined to start spreading this so
that we can have more joyful connections
memory or no memory and as I said the
true here is the story of the carers so
we’re going to train these people to be
able to Phyllis facilitate sessions
themselves because it’s really important
that they can create conversations
throughout the day last month we move my
name into a care home so I’m more
determined than ever to help reshape the
way that we deliver care I don’t want
her to become another invisible person
sat in an armchair dementia is
challenging it can feel like it’s
stripping people of their identities but
what if we could turn that around even
for a few moments I think we need to get
away from this them and us because you
know what they are us in years to come thank you