WORKSHOPS
The Connection Space CIC has access to a number of professionals who have expert skills in various areas of health and social care. Here you will find some workshops that are 'good to go’ and can be brought to your workspace and team. If you have a different topic or subject you would like us to address, just make contact and we’ll see if we can tailor something for you.
These particular workshops are facilitated by Mary Derrick, Registered Occupational Therapist with over 20 years post graduation experience. She brings a wealth of clinical experience of working in various settings within Older Adult Mental Health, with a special interest and expertise around supporting dementia care practices within the care home environment. The workshops draw on her experience and knowledge gained along side promoting current evidence based practices to provide relevant and accessible interactive learning.
Browse through the standard workshops to see if one of the subjects is relevant for your workforce. For terms and conditions, including workshop tariffs, just make contact.
Making Every Moment Count
Supporting a person’s access to meaningful activity is ‘everyones’ business in the care industry. Humans have an innate need to be active, engaged and stimulated to support good levels of health and well being. Everyone within the care environment has a role to play in supporting a persons access to meaningful activity at any of time of their day and within any part of a persons daily routine. This workshop will support attendees to understand the importance of access to meaningful activity within everyday activities for people living with dementia. Ideas will be generated and support given to enable putting plans into practice within their caring role/capacity. Obstacles faced by care teams in their bid to provide activity within their care establishment will be explored. This workshop will give a good basis for accessing any of the following workshops, although all workshops are suitable in isolation.
Exploring Sensory Stimulating Activities and Environments in Dementia Care
Tailoring the care environment and the activities within it, are vital in support of a persons health and well being, for people living with dementia. If we get it right, we can help people to better make sense of the environment and the activities presented to them. This workshop gives attendees an insight into how a person with limited cognitive, perceptual and sensory skills may interpret their environment and the impact this has on their everyday activities. It will provoke thoughts and planning about how their care environment and activities can better equip the individual living with dementia to understand and engage in a meaningful way, and in turn, positively impact on levels of distress or agitation experienced.
Life Story work and Rummage Boxes for People Living with Dementia
There is something very important about understanding the life history of the person we are caring for, to better understand what has been important in their lives, what interests and occupations they have followed, supporting person centred care, enriching and fulfilling our roles and their lives. This workshop will develop attendees understanding of person centred care, of the therapeutic value of gathering life stories, methods of collating, using the persons life stories and how to develop personalised rummage boxes to aid communication.
Enabling Positive Risk taking
We all face risk in our own everyday lives. We make judgements and decisions about taking those risks or not. Within our working roles we are supporting decision making in relation to potential risks in those everyday activities for the people we care for. These decisions may not be straightforward, easily lending the situation to organisations becoming risk adverse and in turn limiting opportunities in every day activities for the people we care for. This workshop will use some of the legal frameworks and guidance to explore the challenges we face in supporting a person living with dementia to maximise their quality of life, to do the things they wish to do, but without placing them in undue danger or harm to self or others. Enabling positive risk taking is based on person centred care and taking a collaborative approach to balancing the positive benefits of taking risk.
Meal times in a Care Environment - not Everyone’s cup of tea
Having a meal is a usual everyday occurrence. We tend to structure our day around eating and drinking. The meal time activity holds our individual preferences, choices, routines and habits and these differ from person to person, family to family, community to community. So how, in a care environment can we meet those individual needs, in order that people are motivated, interested and comforted from their meal time experience? This workshop will encourage attendees to consider the meal time experience for a person living with dementia, in a care environment, the obstacles faced by the person and the care team and identify ways in which the experience can be improved and adapted.
The Importance of Posture and Positioning in Dementia Care
Are you sitting comfortably... then we shall begin? Only when we are feeling comfortable can we fully engage in activity to the best of our ability. We cannot expect a person to engage in conversation, eat a meal, watch the television, have restful sleep if they feel uncomfortable, unsafe or restless. This workshop is full of handy hints and tips to support good practices around a persons posture and positioning within the care environment. Attendees will leave the workshop feeling better informed and enlightened about the power of good posture and positioning for the people they care for. This workshop is not about promoting specialist seating, its about good practices.