We hope that these first weeks of autumn are going ok for you? We'd like to share the latest activities and insights from Islington Carers Hub, and from our local partner organisations in Islington.
We hope that you'll be able to make it to the Annual Carers Festival on Saturday 26th September, 1 - 6pm - it's being promoted across London and there are an incredible 11 different streams of activities!!
Ideas for keeping healthy & happy
1) Celebrating Carers in the Capital
Annual Carers Festival - Sat 26th Sept, 13.00 - 18.00 The Annual Carers Festival is a fantastic event, totally free, with absolutely loads of great online activities - hear from other carers, relax and find time for yourself with a mindfulness session, join activities for those with dementia and their carers, be moved by words from the young people's poet laureate....and loads more!
Have you seen the programme? There are an impressive 11 streams of acts and events, so make sure you've taken a look! To see the programme and to book, please see the website:
This year the event will take place via zoom. If you are unfamiliar with zoom or are unsure how to use it, please get in touch with Carmen, Activities Co-ordinator, CAlcovedes@ageukislington.org.uk and we can help.
Resident DJ, Stage Performances / Virtual Art Gallery / Activities for those with dementia and their carers / Comedy / Movement & Dance / Exercise, diet and nutrition / Thought provoking performance / Power of music / Powerful stories & learning from authors / Relaxation area
With it being Dementia Carers Day earlier this week, we want to raise awareness of our online Reminiscence sessions. These are a great opportunity for older people to come together with others and share life experiences, memories and stories in a relaxed social setting - where everyone can join in from home via their pc or smartphone.
Reminiscence is a fun, social thing to do in itself, but it can also be really helpful for people with dementia. Typically, a person with dementia is more able to recall things from many years ago than they can recent memories; reminiscence draws on this strength.
If you would like to join the event, possibly with someone you care for, please click below for further information. If you're wondering about taking part, you can also call Carmen, our Activities Co-ordinator.
The Museum of London produces monthly high quality Creative and Connected activity packs. Designed for people affected by dementia, each one is inspired by a different object and includes simple, creative, and sensory activities to do at home. This month the packs explore all things food related!
You might also like to know about the Every Small Step initiative launched by Dementia Carers Count. This will take place from Sunday 18th October to Thursday 22nd October. It's a walking challenge, alongside a series of emotive and informative podcasts. The aim is that everyone taking part in the challenge can help reach a total of 700,000 steps, one to represent every family dementia carer in the UK. For more information, click below.
We've had a significant increase in enquiries recently to do with housing repairs and other housing issues.
With the impact of Covid, many housing providers including housing associations are understandably prioritising emergency housing repairs. This means that many tenants could be waiting for a while for non urgent repairs to be done.
We've looked into what different housing organisations are able to provide at the moment. You can find this in our guide below.
2) Join our FREE webinar: How to stay in control of your care
Thursday 24th September, 11 - 12.30pm
How can you make sure medical professionals know how you or your family members would like to be cared for in an emergency? Have you heard of a "Co-ordinate My Care Plan"? This is something you can put together with a helping hand from our free Future Matters service, and this free webinar (online talk) will tell you what you need to know.
A "Co-ordinate My Care plan" prompts you to think about how you'd like to be cared for, and it records your preferences and wishes in a plan that is shared with your GP. This means that if you were to become seriously ill or for whatever reason weren't able to let people know how you'd like to be cared for, the healthcare professionals caring for you would have access to your wishes.
It's never too early to think about this, and relevant to all of us, whatever age we are. We can help you to access the webinar if you need help with this.
Have you got any questions about how to use your smartphone or tablet? We have a lovely team of friendly, knowledgeable Digital Volunteers (from the IT company Okta) who are going to be running a weekly FREE "Tech Break" session to provide you with one-to-one support to answer questions like: "how do I add new contacts to my phone?" or "share photos?", "how can I get travel directions on my phone?" or "how can I connect to wi-fi?" and lots more!
You can have the support session via a phone call or online Zoom meeting, whichever's best for you. For more information and how to book, please click below.
Are you worried about other things? You can call to talk to us about anything that you are concerned about. This might be if you're feeling low, for bereavement support, or about housing or money worries.....
Just a reminder that from the start of this week (14 September) there's an update to the government social distancing guidelines and people can only gather in groups of six or less – that applies indoors as well as outdoors. There are exceptions though. You can see the full guidelines on the government website: social distancing.
If you've got any questions, ideas or useful information to share related to topics in this newsletter or anything else, do get in touch.
We hope to see you at the Carers Annual Festival next week.
Best wishes,
Islington Carers Hub
Islington Carers Hub
PS If you've any friends or family that you think would like to receive this newsletter, please do share it with them! To subscribe they need to email: gethelp@ageukislington.org.uk
