Aunty Glenda’s Project
Bryn Beryl Hospital
Hafan Ward
MORGAN:
[00:00:16] What I remember most is going to Bryn Beryl to the Hafan Ward.
[00:00:25] I enjoyed being able to play games and things like that with the people who had dementia to get to know them a bit more.
CHERYL WILLIAMS:
[00:00:31] It’s important for children to come to understand a little bit more about dementia so that we create communities that understand dementia from the very beginning.
[00:00:44] And as children understand more about the condition, they can then be more tolerant of people who are living with dementia in their own communities.
[00:00:55] Aunty Glenda’s Project
CHERYL WILLIAMS:
[00:00:58] Or a memory or a skill. You know, you’ve written there now, everything that the brain helps us to do, well, every one of these lights represent something like that, and what dementia...
MORGAN:
[00:01:13] Everyone in the class got a card with a job that you are used to doing in a day,
[00:01:17] and then she had red wool and she connected them to each job.
[00:01:23] And then when you become more affected with dementia, it’s broken and then they forget things.
[00:01:29] Perhaps they forget going to brush their teeth and they go straight on to doing something else.
CELT:
[00:01:38] When you cut one strand it was like something going out of your memory.
CHERYL WILLIAMS:
[00:01:43] So as we get older, not everyone will get dementia. It's not a natural part of getting old.
[00:01:52] Well, Dementia Friends began in 2014 and it comes under the Alzheimer's Society. [00:02:01] It’s supported by the Government as part of the campaign to get communities that are more tolerant of people who are living with dementia.
[00:02:12] What do you see in that picture?
BOYS:
Two people talking.
CHERYL WILLIAMS:
[00:02:15] Two people talking. What else can you see in it?
[00:02:20] The shape of a cup in it, isn’t there? A different shape, what we see there.
[00:02:28] It's an opportunity to start the conversation about dementia so that we try to get rid of the stigma and the fear that’s associated with it as well,
[00:02:39] and by having Dementia Friends people can understand a bit more about the condition, about the illness, and be a little more supportive of people who are living with dementia.
[00:02:52] Thirty, twenty, up to ten years old, who remembers their first day at school?
GIRL:
[00:02:57] My first day in this school, I remember sitting on the mat and trying to remember everyone’s names.
CHERYL WILLIAMS:
[00:03:02] Trying to remember everyone’s names.
PHOTOGRAPHER:
[00:03:11] Big smile now, one, two, three.
12 October 2016
Hafan
Bryn Beryl Hospital
EDWIN HUMPHREYS:
Staff Nurse, Project Co-ordinator
[00:03:22] Thank you for coming. This is where we’re working, in Tŷ Hafan isn’t it, and it’s like a Day Club, a Day Club for people to come from home if they want to come in to see us.
[00:03:35] After Cheryl visited the school, we had an open day in the Hafan Unit.
[00:03:39] The Hafan Unit is where we go to introduce the children to people who suffer from dementia.
[00:03:46] We’re a Unit that holds activities here. It’s day care that we offer and we’re open from nine until five.
[00:04:05] And the children were playing games with people all day, and they were having a lot of fun together.
[00:04:10] That broke the ice.
[00:04:11] The children could see that these people were not as bad as all that, and they're not some very odd people, they're just people like you and me, and that worked very well.
MORGAN:
[00:04:33] Everyone there had interesting stories.
[00:04:55] 16 November 2016
MARI IRELAND:
Community dementia nurse
[00:04:59] I had no idea what dementia was at the time. We’ve come a lot further now haven’t we, with time? And a lot of people know about dementia I think, don’t they?
[00:05:08] I work as a community nurse in south Gwynedd, working with young people with dementia and then I know Edwin through my work and he contacted me to do some work with schools through the medium of Welsh.
GLENDA ROBERTS:
[00:05:25] Because I’m young, Young Onset Dementia they call it, that’s what people my age get.
[00:05:33] I was forgetting to send birthday cards, I was ... I had, perhaps a dental appointment, I would forget to go to the dentist’s surgery.
[00:05:44] Oh, I did a lot of tests and then they found that I had dementia.
[00:05:51] And when this was happening, I was worried, I was very worried because I didn’t know what was the matter.
[00:05:58] I knew that there was something the matter but I didn’t know what.
[00:06:04] And then when they said “Yes, you’ve got dementia,” it was a relief because, well, I knew what I had to do, I knew what I had to deal with.
MATH:
[00:06:20] To start with, she was forgetting what everyone wanted, what everyone liked for tea and then she started forgetting more important things.
GLENDA ROBERTS
(Aunty Glenda):
[00:06:31] Living with dementia is difficult. There’s nothing easy about it.
[00:06:37] Your life changes, but with the support of the family, and somebody says “Come on, you can do that,” and then I haven’t just sat in the house, I carry on going.
MARI IRELAND:
[00:06:51] What was very obvious, from sitting with the children after they heard Glenda talking, was the big difference in the way they responded to dementia.
JAC:
[00:07:03] Forgetting the names of her friends.
MARI IRELAND:
[00:07:08] It’s obvious that they listened and took a lot of information on board, but what was really, really lovely was when one little girl said…
GLENDA ROBERTS:
[00:07:18] “I was afraid of dementia but I’m not afraid now.” And that was a really lovely thing for both of us.
MARI IRELAND:
[00:07:26] And that was the best thing that could have come out of the project in terms of what I felt about what we were doing and also how Glenda felt, I think.
GLENDA ROBERTS:
[00:07:37] Yes, I like making cakes and things, so I still make cakes, I still do everything myself in the house, but Mari is an important part of my life and my family.
TEACHER:
[00:07:55] Right, that’s it, Glenda [clapping sound].
[00:08:08] 23 November 2016
CHILD:
[00:08:09] Anni Llŷn came to write a poem with us.
ANNI LLŶN:
[00:08:18] Today, I’ve been doing a workshop with Year 6, a workshop with words and we were creating, talking about feelings and emotions and the fact that everyone has feelings;
[00:08:30] everyone feels a mixture of feelings and emotions.
[00:08:36] So, what the children were doing was trying to put every emotion into a little verse.
CHILD:
[00:08:42] Fantastic.
ANNI LLŶN:
[00:08:43] Fantastic!
MORGAN:
[00:08:44] We had to think about a feeling that people with dementia would have and then we had to create a poem about that.
ANNI LLŶN:
[00:08:50] Who's finished? Okay then.
CELT:
[00:08:53] I feel confused
Grey like a cloud
It happens when I hit my head against the wall
The sound of children on the road shouting
Talking
Confused.
ANNI LLŶN:
[00:09:06] Very good.
[00:09:07] And the idea that they consider that it doesn’t matter what your situation is – you might be ill, you might be completely healthy, you might be unemployed, you might have very heavy work and be very busy –
[00:09:21] whatever your situation, everyone feels and treats their feelings in a different way and that’s what connects everyone. So, that’s what we did today.
[00:09:31] You’ve done excellent work and thank you very much for working hard with us this afternoon.
[00:09:40] 05 May 2017
TESS URBANSKA:
Artist
[00:09:49] We created animations today that were inspired by the poems the children had already written with Anni Llŷn.
GIRL:
[00:09:57] A happy cloud flies in and about half way it’s going to be sad because it feels confused and it starts to rain and the words, that are a little confused, run after it.
MORGAN:
[00:10:28] Every group gets a poem and then we had to make an animation to go with that and then, yes, that was very interesting and I didn’t know there was so much work involved in animation before.
MARI IRELAND:
[00:10:42] The hope is, now that we’ve completed this project, that other schools will take up the reins and do something similar in their communities, or in their schools, to support dementia.
[00:10:56] Once children gain an understanding and learn about dementia, the hope is that then it is taken forward into families and to the communities in which they live in order to make life better for people with dementia, to create friendly communities and let people or allow people to work much longer in their communities, well and safely.
CELT:
[00:11:23] I think it’s important to get to know how to treat people like that. They’re no different to us. They're people too.
MORGAN:
[00:11:31] You never know to who it’s going to come. It could come to anyone.
[00:11:36] The Poems
[00:11:38] Red like the school’s polo shirt
I see a flash of lightning
I hear the sound of a train on the track
I’m unhappy.
[00:11:50] Blue like the sea bed
I see a snowman that has melted
It sounds like a trombone that’s out of tune
I feel disappointed
[00:12:01] Pink like a butterfly
I see Father Christmas
I hear bells ringing
I feel happy
[00:12:09] Light like the sunset
I can see the ground opening
It sounds like a fire crackling
I feel jealous
[00:12:15] Green like the Wales field
I see fireworks
I hear popcorn popping
I feel wonderful
[00:12:23] Yellow like a flower
I see chocolate dancing
I hear autumn leaves crunching
I feel fantastic
[00:12:33] Red like the Wales field
I see a bull
I hear shouting
I feel angry
[00:12:44] Grey like a cloud
I see words bouncing
I hear millions of voices
I feel confused
[00:12:52] Purple like a bruise
I see nothing
I sound like a fart
I feel ashamed
[00:12:59] White like paper
I see stars
I hear dishes falling on the floor
I’ve had a shock
CELT:
[00:13:11] In the future, there won’t be such a thing as dementia and you can find something to avoid the illness and to make them better, hopefully.
Song
[00:13:20] Thank you Aunty Glenda
You really are a friend to us.
Teaching us about dementia
Thank you very much from us.
[00:13:45] Thank you Aunty Glenda
You really are a friend to us.
Teaching us about dementia
Thank you very much from us.
Closing credits
Many thanks to
Glenys Roberts
Mari Ireland
Children and Staff of Ysgol Pentreuchaf
Staff and Group at the Hafan Unit
Dr Catrin Hedd Jones
Sean Page
Children and Staff of Ysgol Llywelyn
Bryn Hesketh Unit
Jane and David Lawson
Kerry Macdonald
Cheryl Williams
Anni Llŷn
Tess Urbanska
Pant yr Hwch Children’s Choir
Edwin and Ceiri Humphreys
Pant yr Hwch Studio
End