Author: Rachel Walker

Representatives from four parishes came to the Dementia Friends session yesterday evening at St Theresa of the Child Jesus in Queensbury.  That means that at least 10 parishes in our Diocese have started the process of becoming a dementia friendly one.

Thank you to everyone from St Theresa’s, St Columba’s, St Malachy’s and St Mary’s who attended ‘Becoming a Dementia Friendly Parish’ session on Wednesday 25th October.   Growing Old Grace-fully was given such a warm welcome and 16 people each became a Dementia Friend.

Caroline and Pauline told me they are planning to start a monthly Memory Café in Pellon.  The plans are still at an early stage but I very much look forward to coming to Pellon for a chat and a coffee at this café when it’s up and running.  We need to share the wonderful work that shows the love of God in action happening in our parishes across our Diocese and beyond.

Thank you again to all who attended, to Christine in particular for arranging the session and to everyone at St Theresa’s for such a warm welcome.

Rachel Walker

The Parish of St John Mary Vianney celebrated the gifts that older parishioners bring as part of the International Day of Older People by hosting a simple “Tea, Cake and Conversation”  afternoon.

Every year, there is a different theme and in 2017 the theme was “Stepping into the Future: Tapping the Talents, Contributions and Participation of Older Persons in Society.”  It was great to see different generations come together to celebrate the talents of older people, as members of the Minnie Vinnies (the parish’s junior SVP) came along to sing.

The International Day of Older People, at the beginning of October every year, is an initiative from the United Nations, as part of a bigger strategy to tackle ageism.  In 2014, Governments around the world adopted a resolution at the Economic and Social Council that recognised ageism as “the common source of, the justification for and the driving force behind age discrimination.”

Did your parish celebrate the International Day of Older People?  If you did, then we would love to hear about it so we can share this with other parishes in our Diocese and beyond.

Leeds Irish Health & Homes want to highlight their Aran Service AranFlyerWEB final version December 8th 2016 which is a home support service for people with dementia. 

The service offers a much-needed respite for carers and they work with the person with memory loss on a ‘doing with’ rather than ‘doing for’ basis, tapping into the things they enjoyed in the past, which could be anything from gardening to baking or sitting and doing a puzzle or painting or whatever they wish to do.  Fully trained and supported staff with a person-centred approach, it really is a unique service.

If you are interested in receiving the service or would like to enquire on behalf of a relative, friend or client, please  contact Paula Cox, Dementia Services Development Manager at Leeds Irish Health and Homes on 0113 262 5614 Ext 161 or 07904 246 531.

Leeds Older People’s Forum (LOPF), Leeds City Council and the Centre for Ageing Better are joining together in a new five year partnership to develop and share innovate approaches to tackle social, economic and health inequalities in later life.

Cllr Charlwood, Chair of LOPF Bill Rollinson and Chair of the Centre for Ageing Better Lord Filkin

Growing Old Grace-fully were pleased to be there at the launch of this partnership and hear Cllr Rebecca Charlwood acknowledge the value of older people,  “Older people currently provide informal volunteer services to their community saving millions of pounds each year”.

You can read more about the plans to make Leeds an ‘age-friendly city’ over the next five years here

The Church is possibly one of the few places in our society where different generations can mix, outside our families.    Older people have a vital role in supporting and encouraging younger generations to encounter, develop and deepen a relationship – with each other and with God.

Leeds Older Peoples’ Forum has produced a new report called Leeds Generations United featuring eight intergenerational projects, as well as one project’s vision for future intergenerational work.  There are some great ideas in this report, some of which might inspire parishes to think about the ways you might develop the great intergenerational work already happening in your churches and you can read the report it here .

The Sacred Heart & St Joseph in Hemsworth is now the 6th Parish in our Diocese to start the process of becoming a dementia friendly parish.

Thank you to everyone who attended ‘Becoming a Dementia Friendly Parish’ session on Wednesday 27th September.   Growing Old Grace-fully was given such a warm welcome, which started with evening mass.  26 people each became a Dementia Friend, including two people from the local community who are not parishioners.

Janet, a parishioner, is planning to start a monthly coffee morning for those living with memory loss and their carers in the parish hall.    “There is nothing like this in Hemsworth for people living with dementia and it’s really needed” Janet told me.   Growing Old Grace-fully look forward to coming back to Hemsworth for a chat and a coffee at this new morning event when it’s up and running.  We need to share the wonderful work that shows the love of God in action happening in our parishes across our Diocese and beyond.

Thank you again to all who attended, to Fr Anthony for arranging this and for everyone for making me so welcome.

Rachel Walker, Project Coordinator

International Day of Older People is celebrated worldwide on the 1 October each year.

Leeds Older People’s Forum supports the Day by stretching the celebration out over a week to allow organisations to hold events to celebrate the contribution that older people make to the city.  Here is the link to the calendar of community events in Leeds.

Leeds Museum are covering the map of Leeds with forget-me-nots made by the people of Leeds, from 26th September until Sunday 1st October.  They hope to raise awareness of dementia, as Leeds becomes a Dementia Friendly Community. The forget-me-not flower symbolises faithful love and memories. It was chosen for this reason to be the emblem of Dementia Friends, An Alzheimer’s Society Initiative.  On Sunday 1st October, on the last day of our Forget-Me-Not installation, there will be poetry readings from a poetry competition Growing Older, choir performances, object handling, tea and cake. Giving Voice choir will be performing. They are an inclusive choir for all adults with neurological conditions and their carers currently funded by Leeds Community Healthcare charity.

Fr William holds a copy of the Guide, with Peter from Catholic Care

People from around the Harrogate Deanery came to explore our new Guide for parishes this week at St Mary’s in Knaresborough.

The evening started with an introduction about this gift of years we have now – as people are living longer – and went on to think about what we mean by later life friendly and what sort of practical things might a parish do.

There was a short Quiz to help everyone think about God’s gift of age, and everyone got a little reward to celebrate being a bit more of a ‘smartie’!

Rachel from Growing Old Grace-fully outlined some of the small things parishes are already doing that help to make a parish more later life friendly.  Peter from Catholic Care talked about some of the Activity Groups  Catholic Care are running in our Diocese and what a difference they make, not just for the older people involved, but for the whole parish.

Thank you to everyone who came, despite the rain!,  and to Fr William and St Mary’s parish for hosting this event.

We were delighted to be invited to present our new Guide  to the members of The Grail Society at their AGM this month.  The generous support of The Grail helped to fund the development of a professionally presented resource and we are very grateful for that.

To help open the discussion to consider God’s gift of age, everyone took part in a quiz.  It wasn’t a test but a fun way to consider some of the facts about ageing and the value of older people.

Three groups each spent time considering different topics covered in the Guide, including “Finding Vocation in Later Life”, “Being Mortal” and “Growing a dementia friendly parish”.  Specifically, the groups were asked to discuss what is happening in their own parishes, what ideas and resources might be useful and what other ideas and resources they would like to include.

We continued the conversations over a great lunch provided by St Paul’s Convent in Selly Oak.  Thank you to everyone for your participation and your welcome.

Rachel Walker