World Alzheimers Month 2024 - Darnall Well Being

This #WorldAlzheimersMonth, we have continued to offer support to local people living with Dementia and their carers in a variety of ways.

woman standing in front of seated people, holding a stack of hula hoops

Our regular Dementia Café sessions at Living Waters Church (Happy Memories) and St Mary’s Community Hub (Making Memories) have been very well attended, as usual.

Making Memories Dementia Cafe in Handsworth was joined by local singer Bob, who entertained everyone with popular songs.

people seated around tables at a dementia cafe — Making Memories – September 2024

Added to the cafe sessions, the JoJanGles music group, which we established in collaboration with the University of Sheffield on research into music and Dementia continues to run, even though the research has finished, because the sessions proved so popular. Two volunteers who have been integral to running the group, Janet and Glenys, were selected for an award from Voluntary Action Sheffield this month. They were given the “New Initiatives” Award at September’s Community Champions Celebration event.

group of people seated around a large table, reading from pieces of paper — JoJanGles Music Group together

women standing in a meeting room in front of a projector screen — Janet and Glenys receive their award

The Carers’ Group that we run in partnership with Sheffield Carers’ Centre have enjoyed a walk together in High Hazels Park, whilst the people they care for did craft activities back at Darnall Primary Care Centre.

group of people smiling to camera outside a building — Carers’ Group in High Hazels Park

People doing wordsearches at a table — Doing puzzles at Carers’ Group

smiling woman holding coloured in pictures — Craft creations at Carers’ Group

a sunflower — Dennis and Lynda’s sunflower

In addition, this September participants have been sharing photos of sunflowers that they have grown as part of a competition to see who can grow the tallest one. Dennis and Linda’s is pictured here – looking good! We are looking forward to seeing all the sunflowers to find out which has ended up being the tallest.

And Christine and Lynda have knitted a batch of 50 flowers, as the logo for the Alzheimers Society.

2 women holding a bag of knitted blue flowers — The knitted flowers

As always, we are so grateful to all of the volunteers who help to support our Dementia groups. We only have funding for one paid worker to run all of our Dementia groups, as well as offering 1-1 support to referrals that we receive; so without the involvement of our volunteers, we would only be able to offer a fraction of the community support that we currently do.

If you’re interested in finding out more about volunteering with us, have a look here or contact Yasmin Saddique, our Volunteer & Activities Coordinator.