14/11/2021

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Heather Manktelow

Brilliant. Well done again Simon. Thank you from all the facilitators like me whom you are helping.

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Laura Walker

'Memory Matters'

Thanks again Simon for sharing your awesomeness in our CST facilitator's group. Always appreciate it.

 

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18/10/2021

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Best feedback ever ♥️

 

"The video quizzes you provide have been a godsend since we re-opened. Because of social distancing we were only able to provide a limited range of activities. With your help, we were able to create a stimulating, interesting and fun atmosphere.

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Our numbers reduced during lockdown, but we are beginning to run sessions that are more like ‘normal’. However, the quizzes will continue, because we asked our customers what they thought and they said ‘brilliant’, ‘amazing’, ‘good fun’, ‘uplifting’, ‘makes you feel better'.

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I have to say, I've not seen Madeline (and all the others present) laugh as loudly and openly as they did during ‘Laughter is the best medicine’. Fortunately, because you always provide far more material than we can use in a 2-hour session, I’ve got half left for another time!

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Your research must be brilliant and the quizzes appeal to a wide range of folk, with customers, carers and helpers all feeding off them at their appropriate level.

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Thanks so much 'Memory Jar' in Cowbridge. You really have made by day/week. All I ever wanted was to support well-being of people with dementia and the comments from clients fill my heart with joy.  Please thank them for me and give them my love and best wishes.

 

 

 

 

 

11/10/2021 (My 60th Birthday)

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Can I just say a huge thank you to Simon O'Donovan from all of us at Sapcote Memory Support Hub for all the amazing topics for CST he’s put on here.

We really appreciate all your hard work Simon.

Some great subjects which have worked well with our group. #superstar #appreciationpost

Katie Grigg

 

Happy Birthday Simon. You are doing an amazing job to help all people out there helping people living with dementia.

Heather Manktleow

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Yes brilliant. He’s a mine of information and ideas!

Gemma Tornwhip

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Lovely to have such feedback on my birthday.

It means everything to me. Makes all the hard work and effort worthwhile.

Thank you 👋 Si 

 

 

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3/10/2021

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Dear Simon.

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Thankyou you for all the materials you continue to provide for cst groups. I find the topics interesting,  very comprehensive, age appropriate,stimulating and fun. I particularly enjoy how you link appropriate YouTube clips, which adds another dimension.

 

I honestly can't tell you how much I appreciate your hard work. I find time goes very quickly and before I know it another group is looming and sometimes my creative ideas do not flow freely!  Your material has proved invaluable on many occasions. 

 

I also think it is a great idea to keep all the sessions in one place, using the app so the sessions can be revisited.  I m not sure how to print off some of the pictures which would be an added bonus for me, but otherwise I just want to thankyou again.

 

Kind regards, Diane 

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Thanks for the lovely feedback Diane.

 

If there is a way for you to link your iPad or PC to a TV and you open the relevant CST activities page, when you click on a picture it turns it into a slide show. You can then print the page as a script for yourself? If this works then you can click on the YouTube links and play those on the TV as well. Hope this makes sense. The only other thing I can think of is for me to make a Google Photos folder to link to for each page?

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Best regards, Simon

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1/10/2021

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Simon, your projects are invaluable. When I was refocusing, I used them many times and I now forward them to friends in the same role.

Kath Martinson, Cardiff

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Keep doing what you do. You never know who you are inspiring. 

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2/9/2021

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You share some fab resources. I share the links with others not on social media. Much appreciated. Beth Britton

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Response. 

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Aw thanks for the lovely feedback. 

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2/9/2021

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Comment on 'Great British Bake Off'

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Fabulous content in all of these topics. Thanks for the great ideas Simon. 

Jaquelyn Wood

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Response.

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You are very welcome!

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3/7/2021

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Dear Simon. 

I have struck gold with this quiz. I have a resident who loves everything to do with transport. He will adore this and I am sure all of our 'family' will enjoy it too. Thank you! Teresa Boyle

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Response.

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Ah that's brilliant to hear. Please let me know if he has anything to add?

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29/6/2021

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We are just about to re-open The Memory Jar in Cowbridge, although we are having to do so in a very different format, relying more on whole group activities eg videos, quizzes, music,rather than our usual small group activities. One of our friends has told us about your superb resources, and we have been reading about your project and looking at what you produce. It would be marvellous if we could use some of them at Memory Jar, as they appear to be just what we're after, but we don't want to do so without your permission. Hope you feel it's OK to do so. Best wishes, Madeline and Colin

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Response 

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Hi Madeline & Colin

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Please feel free to use anything and everything you wish. This website is open access and a free resource. Hope all goes well. Please let me know how you find the materials and what works best etc. Best wishes Simon

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5/6/2021

Hi Simon,
I am the well-being and activity coordinator at a care home in Eastbourne, East Sussex.
We care for people with complex neuro medical conditions.
I receive your quiz’s each week and they are brilliant.  We are lucky to have a big screen so I can show it on that where everyone can see the pictures.
We have a loyal group of quizers who join us every Tuesday afternoon.
I just wanted to say a big thank you for your work and sharing too.
Kind regards,
Teresa Boyle

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25th March 2019 - Dale Whetter - "Thank you so much for providing so many useful CST resources! I work as an assistant psychologist on an inpatient male dementia ward and we regularly use your information and adapt it to meet the needs of our gents. We love the multi sensory elements. Keep up the good work." 👏👏

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31st October 2018 - Sue, Jersey - "My husband has vascular dementia and is now in full time care.  I wanted to give the staff more detailed information about Pete to help them with the care and support that Pete needs. Your website was sent to me by friend who works with dementia patients here in Jersey where I live. Please could I ask if you could send me a blank Snapshot Assessment for me to complete for Pete."

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24th October 2018 - Stephanie Browne, Later Life and Memory Services, Wigan - "Thanks for getting back to me and for sharing all of that information, it’s really helpful. I wasn’t at the conference unfortunately, but thank you for forwarding on the slides. It seems like you are running a great dementia service and your CST blog is really useful and an excellent resource!"

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16th July 2018 - Susan Round - "Brilliant. Thanks so much for sharing." (West Midlands)

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13th June 2018 - Tim Nicholls - "Such an excellent Blog and activity tool. Thanks for sharing." (Cardiff)

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2nd January 2019 - Diane Saralis - "

 

Happy New Year! Simon I just started a young onset group before Christmas and will be holding the first one for 2019 tomorrow. Your email was very timely and full of great ideas and topics. So much so I now wonder how I will fit it all in! Just go with the flow I guess.

 

I just wanted you to know that all this information is extremely helpful and in time I will certainly be contributing to the blog! Kind regards Diane

 

 

Hi Diane

 

It was great to hear from you and to welcome you as a subscriber. I really hope your new group goes well and would welcome any further feedback about the materials etc.

 

It’s worth noting our sessions spread across 4 hours. So are quite spaced. We tend to chunk things up.

 

We start with welcome, introductions and orientation. Then have a themed discussion. Then we have the music round, which is usually the best received. For this we just play one verse and a chorus of each song, unless members are responding well and having a singalong. Then we always have a practical activity session, which is arts and crafts based. We also tend to finish with a relaxation app or mindfulness few minutes.

 

By way of winding down. I guess our lessons are it’s important to be flexible. We aim to involve and include people as much as possible, regardless of memory or language problems. All contributions no matter how small matter and positive feedback is always well received. We try to focus on the multisensory just as much as the cognition. And make it all about enjoyment.

 

We always hope for members leaving the session feeling they’ve had fun and along the way had a workout for their brain. The other thing is not to feel weighed down by pressure of content and materials. Maybe print off the page and highlight the bits you aim to focus on in yellow highlighter. Space for discussion and recall and story telling are just as important. Also we always try to print off some colour images for the tables, have a few things on hand to taste and make the sessions a truly sociable occasion.

 

Very best of luck.

 

 

Dear Simon

 

Many thanks for this. Can I ask what kind of venue do you hold the sessions in and what times? Also I'm kinda of going along with the CST framework and I will definitely be involving music into each session, but I'm not very sure about the theme song idea. Do you have any thoughts? Also you say your sessions are 4 hrs long. We again are going along with the CST framework and have put aside 14 one hour sessions. If the people who attend agree and want to carry on after the 14 weeks we will need to plan ahead.

 

Thanks for your time Diane x

 

Hi again

 

We did try the theme song but it does get a bit tedious and it's hard to choose one song for everyone. Our sessions are held in a local day hospital, where we are given a lounge and adjacent kitchen and dining room. It's good to have tables for the practical activity session.

 

I should have said our sessions last 3 hours really (2-6pm each Thursday), as the last hour is a light supper and chat with family members also present.

 

We do run the Making A Difference 14 weeks CST programme (colleagues) as a closed group, then have a monthly CST maintenance session to support ongoing friendships etc.

 

Then for people who are a bit more advanced and in need of more support (and carer respite) we have our weekly Thursday Friendship Group, which is where our Blog comes from.

 

The music has definitely become a stronger focus for us. Hopefully we choose themed tracks which are held in long term memory and can be sung along with. For people with more profound memory and language deficits it's a really great feeling to have those songs rhythms and even lyrics still there. So rewarding and uplifting. We have one client in our group with advanced FTD with no remaining language. Yet she still mouths the words to the songs and cries and laughs as she does so. It's so moving to see such a response.

 

Anyways, hope all goes well. Best regards Simon

 

Diane Saralis - 7th January 2019

 

Hi Simon Just to let you know, we got some great feedback from the group session. We used quite a lot of the material you provided along side what we had already prepared.

 

The section about the New Year Honours list was particularly useful and when we asked "what would you say is your greatest achievement, what are you proud of" the whole session went in a different direction!

 

We had one lady who's husband is French and after struggling with the language for sometime, she surprised him by having secret tuition then inviting his friends around for dinner and speaking in French the whole evening.

 

Another gentlemen had completed the Three Peaks challenge and one lady said her proudest moment was having her baby twins.

 

Well you can imagine the conversation, YouTube clips and songs that came from this information! We had more than enough material for 1 hour and can make another session with the ideas created.

 

We ended the session by singing the Tina Turner track 'You're Simply The Best', which seemed appropriate.

 

Thanks again Simon much appreciated.

 

Ah thanks Diane.

 

That's smashing feedback. It sounds like you had a very vibrant and enjoyable session. It's all about engagement and inclusion, isn't it? And of course recognition of person. And those golden nuggets where individual value is recognised makes our job so much more interesting and enjoyable. Such feedback also helps me keep the blog going.

 

All the best. Simon

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20th December 2020 - 

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Dear Simon,

I hope this email finds you well. Your blog is fab and is a really excellent resource for people working in memory clinics and running CST sessions. Would you mind if I listed your blog on the website for the Memory Services National Accreditation Programme (MSNAP) please? I’m working on building a resources page for clinicians, people with dementia and carers.

Best wishes,

Vicky Cartwright

Deputy Programme Manager

Royal College Of Psychiatrists

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Thanks Vicky.

What lovely feedback. Yes of course, happy for it to be shared far and wide. I'm hoping over the next year or two to have a catalogue of 52 activities pages, one for every week of the year that can be used on rotation. There was some discussion about developing a book/ manual with a publisher last year, but keeping it going like this means it remains a free resource and copyright restrictions are thus fewer for music playlists, photos etc. It's a young onset dementia resource primarily, but hopefully with wider relevance for older people and other groups.

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Great to hear from you & best regards,

Simon

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26th January 2021 - Michaela Sheridan-White

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Thank you!

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I'm an OT working in OAMH for Derbyshire Community Health Services. I just wanted to say a big Thank You for all the hard work you've put into this site.

 

I came across it a few weeks ago when we went into the 2nd lockdown and all our CST groups were cancelled, again. We talked about Virtual CST groups, would our client group be able to engage virtually?

 

A lot of the staff were unsure and wary of the technology. I found this site and thought, well obviously it can be done and can be done successfully. Within a week we got our first vCST group set up using inspiration from your Childhood session and i've just found the recent session on decimalisation, fabulous!

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Thanks for putting all your work out there for others to adapt and use, it's really helpful.

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Best wishes,

Michaela

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