Carers Resources
Hearts & Minds have developed a selection of resources with partners for use by professional carers and unpaid carers of people with dementia or chronic illness to help with engagement and communication. These resources are based on the techniques used by our Elderflowers.
A Place in the Fun
A Place in the Fun is a pack of 6 Ideas for enhancing connection and fun in care homes. It is about people together connecting, expressing emotion, using their imagination and trying things out. It doesn’t mean everyone being happy the whole time – it may however involve laughter, surprises and sparks of connection.
A Place in the Fun is a collaboration led by My Home Life Scotland in the University of the West of Scotland & Kinections. This work was funded by the Life Changes Trust.
Download resource pack (PDF)
Part 1: ‘I need a good night’s sleep’
Part 2: ‘Little objects that bring great comfort’
Part 3: ‘I love to be silly now and again!’
What do I need? Carers Voices
In three chapters — ‘I need a good night’s sleep’, ‘little objects that bring great comfort’ and ‘I love to be silly now and again!’ — we hope to shine light on carers’ experiences and the ways in which we are all connected.
This short animated film celebrates the voices of carers from Glasgow East End Community Carers who shared their personal experiences of caring at home for a person living with dementia or chronic illness. It is based on the themes of Hearts & Minds’ Play, Cope, Care workshops — focusing on how communication skills through listening, improvisation and play can help build resilience and coping abilities.
Animated by Fergus Dunnet with music and sound design by Susan Bear. Created with funding from Bupa UK Foundation.
Kinections & Rights Made Real
Working alongside My Home Life Scotland and the University of the West of Scotland (UWS), our Elderflowers have partnered with residential care homes across Scotland to foster community, human rights, and personal expression for people living with dementia.
Kinections: Creating a Sense of Community in Care Homes
Kinections was a 3-year research project working with care homes across East Ayrshire in collaboration between Hearts & Minds, the Kinections project at My Home Life Scotland, and the University of the West of Scotland, funded by the Life Changes Trust (Dementia-Friendly Communities programme).
The project explored what helps a sense of community to grow and flourish in care homes — a feeling of community and human connection that is at the heart of our programme, with our Elderflowers presenting themselves as an extended family of siblings and cousins.
Collaborating since 2018, the Kinections team and Hearts & Minds focused on how care home staff incorporate elements of the Elderflowers’ approach to connecting and engaging with people living with dementia, and how both face-to-face and virtual visits can create moments of joy, laughter, and shared community.
Rights Made Real in Care Homes
Funded by the charity My Home Life, Rights Made Real (RMR) worked with 68 care homes across Scotland to explore and enhance the promotion of human rights for care home residents, with a particular emphasis on people living with later stage dementia. RMR provided 20 opportunities and a series of resources for residents and their families related to exploring and enhancing human rights.
The four human rights that the project focused on were:
- Personal Expression
- Participation in Cultural Life
- Participation in Public (and Community) Life
- A Private and Family Life
Our Elderflower Programme was offered as part of the Personal Expression opportunities. Working with Bagatelle, Glenfield and Muirton Care Homes, Blossom and Lily Elderflower delivered both online and in-person visits using therapeutic clowning, music, songs and stories to engage residents and encourage communication.
“The photos show the connection between the residents and the Elderflowers and for me seeing the reactions of the residents, they brightened the day, for each in their own way. Blossom and Lily were exciting; someone new and the residents were inquisitive to follow their lead. The spontaneity and versatility of their style was a pleasure to watch and GMAS, Bagatelle and Glenfield were fortunate and grateful to have been a part of this project.” — Diana Knox, Activity Development Co-ordinator (Glenfield & Bagatelle Care Homes, Greenock)
“It felt that even though the ladies and gentlemen may not all have remembered our Zoom visits, we already had a connection and ways in for engagement. One new lady we met was delighted with our red noses. She played a game with us reaching out and touching our noses in a very mischievous way, being playful with who she was going to get next leading to lots of laughter. Staff mentioned this lady would often sit with her head down and eyes shut and were very happy to see her this engaged during a beautiful visit with no words but a clear connection.” — Rachel Colles (Blossom Elderflower), Project Lead
The Treasure We Seek
The Treasure We Seek project — a partnership between Hearts & Minds, Designed by Society, Wee Culture and Edel Roddy — developed online resources that enable people to experience new ways to feel connected to those living with advanced dementia.
There are two sets of resources available: Valuables and Treasure Hunt.
Funded by the Dementia Services Development Trust Disruption Award.
Valuables
Valuables is a set of three resources which have been developed with people who may not have had a previous experience of being with people who are in the later stages of dementia.
Treasure Hunt
Treasure Hunt resources are designed to offer ideas for people in preparing for and engaging in an online visit, with a family member/friend with dementia, in ways which support connection.
Say Yes to the MESS
Say Yes to the MESS is a series of three videos created by staff from Crossgate Care Home, Kilmarnock in collaboration with Hearts & Minds and Wee Culture.
The project partners worked together to draw on learning from our Elderflowers to explore how this could be incorporated into the day-to-day practice of care home staff when engaging with people living with dementia.
Each video begins with a story from an Activity Co-Ordinator. The stories are about interactions they have had with residents with dementia and are followed up with a description of some key elements of the Elderflowers approach that can generate moments of brightness and laughter. Each video has different suggestions for how to take forward ideas to use in your own interactions with people with dementia.
The project was funded by the Life Changes Trust Regional Grants Programme.
Being Okay with No
New Possibilities for Everyday Objects
What’s in a Name?
