My name is Pauline Jones. I am a mother, grandmother and former personal assistant. I am also a person with lived experience of dementia, and I was excited to have attended the Dementia Community Research Network (DCRN) event in this capacity.
I arrived at Stanstead Lodge Senior Club hoping to learn some new things that I didn’t know before. I received a warm and friendly welcome and started my afternoon with a cup of tea and a slice of cake. I couldn’t believe there were six types to choose from! I chose lemon drizzle - it was delicious. My granddaughter, who was attending the event with me, and I both agree that it is much easier to take in information on a full stomach!
Pauline Jones, photographed at the event in front of the Dementia Community Research Network banner
Research into dementia is very important because it can help everyone learn how to support people like me better. During the presentations, I was most interested to hear about three dementia friendly cafes that take place across south London and are run by Home Instead. At the Butterfly (Denmark Hill), Tulip (West Dulwich) and Sunflower (Balham) cafes, you can do activities like poetry, music therapy and nature sessions alongside others. Kemi Browne, who runs the cafes, came to talk to me about them after her presentation. I am a very social person and connecting with others is really important to me, so I love to hear about schemes like this.
After the presentations, we took part in some group singing. Alistair Sutherland, an operatic baritone, community engagement facilitator and music educator, accompanied us using a piano accordion.
Pauline and community engagement facilitator and music educator Alistair Sutherland, photographed with Alistair's piano accordion.
Alistair explained that when singing with people with dementia, it’s helpful to choose songs that will be stored in our long-term memory, that we may remember from things like school assemblies, or having our parents sing to us. I definitely find this helpful!
Alistair had such a strong, rousing voice and I loved singing with him. I was surprised to learn that ‘Daisy, Daisy' has a whole first verse I never knew about. Luckily, because I already knew the tune, it was easy to sing along to! This was my favourite part of the day.
Pauline singing along to 'Daisy, Daisy', accompanied by Alistair
After singing, I had a look around the stands, where I met ARC South London postdoctoral research fellow Katharine Orellana. She told me a bit about The Day Centre Resources Hub, which aims to improve knowledge about day services and support day centre operation. This was of particular interest to me because my day centre, which I attend three times a week, is a very central part of my life.
I couldn’t believe how quickly the afternoon went by! In the car on the way back home, the events of the day got me and my granddaughter talking about what areas I would like research on dementia to focus on. Something that is very important to me is to be able to make my own choices - for instance, about the food I eat and the things I do. Research that looks into how to promote personal choice and independence among people with dementia, could be very useful.
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