St Nicholas Launch Dementia Friendly Project With Trenewydd Care Home

Pupils in year 6 have been learning about Dementia and Dementia Friendly Communities as part of the PSHE curriculum.

Currently, approximately 425,000 in the UK have a Dementia diagnosis, 19,500 of whom live in Wales; it is predicted that in excess of 1 million people will be affected in the UK by 2025.

We believe that it is important for our children to learn about an issue such as this which affects us all, and to equip future generations with as much knowledge as possible.

We welcomed an Alzheimer’s Society volunteer who is a trained Dementia Friends Champion, and ran training sessions for pupils and parents to increase their understanding of Dementia and to break down the stigma around this condition.

Following on from the training session, we have developed an inter-generational project associated with Trenewydd Residential Care Home in order to facilitate their ongoing understanding.

Under the supervision of Sylvia Perry, who is ‘Activity Organiser’ at Trenewydd and SNH staff, the children have now started their weekly visits to the home where they have undertaken many fun and worthwhile activities with the residents. We are also fortunate to have the support of L6th volunteers Heledd and Nerys.

On our first visit the children spent time chatting to residents whilst doing some colouring activities for Harvest. Young and old (some over 100yrs old!) chatted, laughed and shared stories together which is so important for the residents, many of whom live with dementia. The children had a wonderful time and even sang a few songs before they left which brought a smile to many faces.

The children conducted themselves fantastically with some saying that this was the best thing that they had ever done! We will continue our weekly visits for the rest of the year and hope to forge very special friendships in the process.