Supporting the Community - Dementia Friendly Technology Workshop attended by Marchand Petit team

13th February 2017

Prunella Martin Director and Head of Prime Waterfront & Country House Marchand Petit and Claire Northmore of Marchand Petit Newton Ferrers attended the Dementia Friendly Technology Workshop on Wednesday 8th February at Plymouth University. Prunella and Claire are heading up a group of volunteers in Newton Ferrers who are trialling the use of IPad’s within the community for people with Dementia working alongside the well-established Dementia Friendly Parish’s Around The Yealm and Newton and Noss Network Chair Roy Fenner.   

The aim of the day was for participants to hear and think about how digital technology might help in the lives of people with dementia, and for family and professionals involved in caring for people with dementia. Introducing the seminar was Ian Sherriff Chair of the Prime Ministers Rural Dementia Friendly Task group. Mr Sherriff recently spoke on BBC’s Countryfile on the valuable work done by the Dementia Friendly Parish’s Around The Yealm to provide invaluable support to residents and their families. Prunella Martin said: “It was a real pleasure to meet with Ian Sherriff and discuss this project that we are so passionate about and we found the day incredibly valuable for gaining new ideas on how to make this initiative as useful as possible to people locally within our community struggling with dementia.”  

Claire Northmore explains:“The idea behind the use of the Ipads is to have dementia friendly Apps on them as well as historical photos of Newton Ferrers, Noss Mayo and the local area to encourage conversations with family and carers. Karen Turvey, Manager of Rosemont Residential Home in Newton Ferrers’ reported to us at our last meeting that on trialling the IPad’s over Christmas with her residents she found that family members stayed longer and enjoyed looking through the old photographs together and felt it had helped to stimulate conversation. As we continue to work on this project we hope to look at additional apps and features that might be useful including the use of music on them.”  

Claire goes on to say:“Dementia Friendly Parish’s Around The Yealm is such an incredible asset to the area. Maxine Kennedy Project Co-ordinator and Liz Hitchins Secretary along with Roy Fenner Chair of the Newton and Noss Network and Karen Turvey Manager of Rosemont, have been the real driving force behind this initiative, and we are really enjoying working with them to hopefully provide a really useful resource that will be available to anyone in the village who would like to borrow one.”

If anyone would like to be involved in this very worthwhile project or has any historical photos for example of local events that might be of interest, please contact Claire Northmore at Marchand Petit on 01752 873311 or claire@marchandpetit.co.uk

Photo right to left – Ian Sherriff, Claire Northmore, Roy Fenner, Liz Hitchins, Maxine Kennedy and Prunella Martin