Cuimhne Workshops
Zibiah Loakthar, our Cuimhne Coordinator writes
A big thank you to Marian Larragy and all at West Hampstead Irish Women’s Group and West Hampstead Women’s Centre for warmly welcoming Zibiah, Carmel Murphy and Anne Marie Jervis from our Irish in Britain Cuimhne team to facilitate workshops on Memory and Dementia Awareness this month.
It was a real pleasure to come together for shared learning and exchange of ideas, much lively open discussion and even a few shared songs.
heritage
As a group we reflected upon why memory is important to us all and the value of creating community banks of memory resources. We explored how projects and exhibitions like our Irish in Britain 50th anniversary oral history and heritage project can help promote cross-cultural and cross-generational understanding of people’s pasts.
Exploring such materials can offer useful insight to family friends and volunteers supporting people who may be living with memory loss. People shared their experiences of visiting our Irish in Britain Looking Back to Look Forward travelling exhibition in the Irish Cultural Centre in Hammersmith.
The group hope to plan a visit to the Archives of the Irish in Britain at London Metropolitan University to explore the treasures there.
In our first workshop on 9 November we discussed very practically what dementia is and how we might challenge taboos around it. We also talked about what we can do to encourage people who may be worried about memory loss to seek GP advice and the practical support family and friends who play caring roles may welcome.
Camden carers
We were delighted to introduce Gillian Thompson from Camden Carers Making Carers Count to the group. We discussed the challenges for people in our communities in caring roles and the importance of peer support networks.
We also shared ideas for how, as individuals and in our social networks, we can help promote community wellbeing and social inclusion.
In our second workshop on 23 November we discussed over tea and blueberries positive steps we can take individually and collectively to promote brain health, be inclusive in activities and challenge taboos about dementia.
We discussed the bookcase analogy for understanding the experience of memory loss for many people living with dementia.
We also explored our Cuimhne My Story book resource, developed by Irish in Britain as a tool that we can use to support communication in different settings.
This is a beautiful book that can be completed individually or with others as a way of holding on to and sharing important memories. Participants have taken books away to try out and we shall return in the new year to share experiences here.
Irish in Britain Cuimhne half day and full day workshops can be offered in person or online free of charge to our Irish in Britain member groups. We receive positive and encouraging feedback about the usefulness of these sessions.
“good interaction, a very informative and enjoyable session”
“we found the session interesting”
“Thank you for such a warm welcome. The session that you delivered was so interesting and engaging.”
We are also pleased to offer training to mainstream organisations supporting people to better connect with the Irish community.
Our workshops help people to understand some of the cultural issues that may affect people’s access to and experience of mainstream support services and share ideas for good practice.
On 27 November, Zibiah and Ellen offered a Cuimhne workshop to 15 members of the Camden Carers Making Carers Count learning about each other’s work. We discussed ideas for working in culturally sensitive ways with our diverse Irish community in relation to dementia and carer support.
A big thank you to Anna Campbell at Camden Carers for support coordinating this session for colleagues. Staff attending have told us they gained much from the session and that felt it sparked interesting and useful discussion.
feedback
“Great examples of how Dementia may impact an individual’s memory and behaviour, and how we can use someone's history and interests to engage with them and support their wellbeing in a holistic way. Video examples showed good examples of this that were easy to digest.”
“Zibiah and Ellen were great hosts and presented with warmth and compassion. Language used was thoughtful and accessible. Video examples were a good length and gave enough information or perspective to reflect upon, not just for Irish carers/cared for, but all carers.”
“Many thanks, for a great session, it will inform how I work going forward.”
“I thought more about the importance of delivering sessions across the community in the form of in-person outreach sessions. Also thinking about the My Story book and how helpful this may be for our carers.”
“I will be keeping in mind the many things I learnt when supporting Irish carers, especially promoting the concept of 'carer' and that support for them is out there!”
“I learnt a lot, even as an Irish person, it was very interesting to be reminded of all the cultural aspect to consider when support Irish carers.”
We plan to continue our collaborative work with Camden Carers and invite them to join us as guests for a Thoughtful Thursday workshop for carers in the new year open to all – watch this space!
If you would like to explore hosting a Cuimhne workshop or arranging training for a mainstream organisation please email Zibiah at champions@irishinbritain.org