Cuimhne Memory Loss and Community Support Workshops for Volunteers
Zibiah Loakthar, our Cuimhne Coordinator writes:
Volunteering may bring us into connection with others in meaningful ways. Besides being a way to give back to and support our communities, volunteering can be great for our own happiness, health and mental wellbeing.
There are many opportunities to volunteer locally nationally and online with the Irish community. Find out where your nearest Irish community centre may be by checking our map.
On “Great Mental Health Day in London“ held in London on Friday 26 January, one of our Irish in Britain volunteers, Carmel Murphy, together with our Cuimhne Coordinator Zibiah led a workshop in BIAS (Brent Irish Advisory Service) in Trades Hall in Cricklewood for people volunteering with BIAS’ Be-A-Friend scheme.
We came together with BIAS volunteer team members Annette, Bridget, Clive, Ersilia, Kathleen, Linda Marcella, Maria, Noemi, Teresa and Will to discuss what it means to volunteer We also discussed some of the possible issues that may arise for volunteers.
We explored what memory loss is, why it may happen and how it can affect people and discussed differences between different types of dementia and other forms of memory loss.
We introduced the idea of the bookcase analogy as a way of understanding how people living with dementia may experience memory loss and we spent time discussing how in our communities we can better support and include family carers too.
We had some thoughtful group discussion about what we can do if we become concerned someone may be experiencing memory loss.
We shared thoughts on how volunteering schemes like Be A Friend can actively help promote wellbeing access and inclusion for people with memory loss.
We had a wonderful time and learned so much from each other. Our Cuimhne team would like to thank everyone for their participation. A big thank you BIAS Volunteer Coordinator Ersilia for coordinating everyone and arranging healthy refreshments in keeping with our health and wellbeing theme!
We look forward to further collaborative work.
“Great participation of attendees, good discussions, sharing ideas, stories and learning from each other. Hope a follow up day can be arranged in future”
Carmel Murphy, Irish in Britain Cuimhne Volunteer
Our Cuimhne team at Irish in Britain is very pleased to visit groups to facilitate discussion and community action about memory loss and dementia. This can be offered online or in person at your community group meeting spaces.
Please do get in touch if you may be interested in exploring setting up a workshop, training session or facilitated community group discussion for volunteers, staff and/or community members in your groups. We are often able to offer training workshops free of charge to member groups and these are recommended by people who take part:
"Thoroughly enjoyed the meeting. Lovely friendly and relaxing atmosphere"
"very interesting and informative"
"it was really interesting, learned a lot from the talks"
"very interesting and helpful – thank you!"
Comments from Cuimhne BIAS workshop participants