Media Versus Dementia

Personalised Interactive Media stimulate their users to take action, and there are several ways in which you can actively participate in Medvdem;



Carers

Carers

Providing Care, either to your own loved one, or as a professional carer looking after PwD in their homes or in residential care 

Pilots

Fundraising

In 2023/24 we shall be running pilots schemes to test developments in our media and their delivery and the effects they are having on those with dementia.

MedvDem faces the same challenges as commercial companies in getting to the stage where it can apply for grants and awards, but unlike them it cannot offer shares in profits, so relies on donations.

Carers

Carers are the key to the success of Media versus Dementia. Care home owners are unlikely to invest in new technologies and techniques if they are seen to occupy more time by thinly-stretched carers. Carers who are unwilling to charge devices or learn new IT skills can block access to personalised interactive media. Yet, as Arlene Astell discovered successful programmes can improve the enjoyment of carers and families in their interaction with their loved ones. As can be seen from Tricia’s Case Study 2, skilled carers can work wonders with extreme cases, but they need support in training others to facilitate media sessions.


In July 2022, when the dementia seminar took place in Winchester, the social care sector was in crisis. Boris Johnson had legislated for an increase in National Insurance to pay for an overhaul of the care system; a limit of £87k was placed on the amount that any individual should incur in care home fees in a lifetime. Michael had appeared with Sir Andrew Dilnott who had recommended most of the measures the PM would table in October. However, the tax was likely to be repealed, and the proposed hike in NI contributions was withdrawn during the flurry of prime ministers the following summer mounting a crisis in the care sector.

Bea Chiyangwa Wardrobe

Bea was born in Zimbabwe and came to the UK to study dental nursing; at the same time, she took NVQs and qualified as a carer. She now has over twenty years’ experience in a variety of care environments, including special schools, nursing homes, live-in care and private residences. She is experienced in caring for clients with learning disabilities and dementia. Four years ago she established her own care agency, Exacting Healthcare.

Suzanne Mumford

Suzanne Mumford is  Head of Nursing, Care & Dementia │ Quality in the Care UK Group. She is involved in training and research Into practical skills and technology for dementia care across the social care sector and is a frequent speaker at international conferences on innovations in evidence-based practices. She works closely with Relish (formerly Active Minds) who have created an app to support activities tailored to  the individual needs of the person living with dementia using the Pool Activity Level assessment tool. 

Pilots

MedvDem embarks on its programme of field trials with these advantages;


  • Professor Astell has been conducting research studies involving people with dementia for more than two decades and has established methodologies and protocols which she will be applying in our trials and pilots.
  • The case is already made that media do stimulate the blood flow to the brains of the cognitively challenged, unlock hidden memories and increase their well-being. 
  • There are no negative side-effects of this form of intervention.


Our job is to establish the best methods of involving people with dementia with personalised interactive multimedia, especially those living in their own homes, and thus to make them available to anyone in the same condition.


The challenge

.. is the range and diversity of the subjects we need to study, namely;


Technology designed to remove any barriers to the process of logging in, finding and selecting content, viewing, responding to and reviewing favourite content.


Content To which genres (comedy, drama, music, archive etc), lengths, interactivity etc do they react best? Also, the effects of combining media, of personalising the content, etc. 


The effects on participants Although many video production, music, activity and games companies have observed the positive effects of their respective products on PwD, this will be the first systematic attempt to quantify, compare and apply the information.



We shall be seeking volunteers to participate in our trials in late 2023, we shall be working with people at all stages of dementia, but in the first instance those who are living in their own homes, with family and/or domiciliary care.


They will be encouraged to use new methods of finding and using their media; the cooperation of their family and carers will be essential. (A management proposal on the conduct of pilots is in the locked area of the library for permission to access it, click here)


Research methodologies


Media versus Dementia plans to conduct pilots with people who suffer from dementia at various stages of dementia, in their own homes and in residential care.

 

Laboratory research at medical faculties such as the University Hospital of Southampton involves clinical analysis of physical brains either from dead humans or from animals like mice, usually specially bred for the purpose, while ....

 

Psychological and field research involves questionnaires and researchers visiting numbers of PwD in their homes and observing their behaviours and wellbeing and statistical.


Thereafter, we shall continue to monitor data from our subscribers, with their permission, in order continuously to improve our understanding of dementia and the service we provide to them.


Watch this space...


For example


£3,000 will cover the legal costs of establishing the CIO 

£4,000 professional services, regularising our accounts and agreements

£10,000 (4 months) will pay our small part-time admin team at the level required to set up the pilots etc

£20,000 (4 months)will enable us to pay a professional project manager (currently working pro bono) 

(£40,000 would ensure that we have the human resources to manage the pilots and progress our major fundraising)


While …

£50 will enable one of us to travel by train to London to meet ministers, government officials etc

£200 will help cover the travel costs of a researcher/coordinator on one pilot

£500 printing introductory/briefing packs for carers for pilot

£500 will pay the hire costs of seminar facilities for one day 

£1,000 will cover the costs of editing training videos for one pilot etc...


For its first year, MedvDem was set up and operated with no funding apart from Blakstad family donations and by voluntary work by partners and future trustees . We now need money to set up the charity on a professional basis and maintain our core team until we secure external funding to manage the pilots.



And the treasurer? Doesn’t exist; the fundraising, of which the auction was the first event, is intended to enable Media versus Dementia to recruit and pay specialist managers and build a team to deliver the concept described in this website. Although none of the higher-value (over £200) items was sold at the auction, the afternoon's take was £1,600, enough to keep the existing part-time and volunteer operation ticking over for a month and a bit, but not enough to start building a full-time professional team. However, notable donations were made by people who couldn't be present and after the auction, sealed bids and online sales started to kick in and the off-line figure soon exceeded the total raised during the afternoon.

Donations

So near and yet so far. We depend on donations towards the costs involved in maintaining the campaign Media versus Dementia between June to September.

A good time was had by all, with the possible exception of the treasurer. By common consent the star of the show was the auctioneer, Michael Kurn, TV presenter for the Premier League and charity auctioneer, who soon judged the mood of the gathering, wasted no time trying to find bidders for the premium items and chased every pound as the residents of Bishopstoke Park looked for bargains among the bottles and meal offers.

The seemingly effortless efficiency with which 93 lots were catalogued, displayed for preview, paraded during the bidding and consigned to their new owners, was down to Penny Roberts, director of Media versus Dementia CIC and chair of the Residents’ Association of Bishopstoke Park. No-one else could have identified and recruited so many residents and then managed their respective roles with such precision, even though she was out of the country until the morning of the auction.

Many thanks to those who were so generous with their time, their money, their gifts.


That's your lot!

We held an inaugural Auction and set up an online Galleria to sell items and services donated by individuals and companies, and urge you to buy or donate to support MedvDem.

On Tuesday 18th April, Media v Dementia held a charity Auction to raise funds to help run the upcoming pilots. It was a great event and we raised over £2,000, not all of the items were sold, below is a selection of the items we have available to buy online.


Signed copy of 'Sockpuppet' by Matthew Blakstad


Dedicated by the author, with thanks for your support of MedvDem- this was Matthew's first novel published by Hodder & Stoughton, as was his second 'Lucky Ghost’. He has just completed the first draft of his next work, a trilogy.  £20

Dedicated copy of 'Farming the Valley'

Hardback, with slip cover, limited edition of 100


A limited, hardback edition of the book edited (and mainly written) by Michael Blakstad which chronicles the history of agriculture in East Meon, but could be of any village in England since Agriculture was the dominant industry until well into the 19th century. Michael will sign and dedicate this copy to the successful bidder. £80

Abstract Seascape Acrylic painting - by Annie Dion.

Annie Dion has been painting for 30 years; she was

selected for the Salon of French Artists at the Grand Palais in 2013 and in the following year to represent the modern art of France in China. Some 15 of her paintings are still on display in Peking and in Xi’an. Her work has gained numerous distinctions and is exhibited all over the world in

private and in gallery collections.

Equivalent paintings sell today in France for 3,000 Euros+ .

Our baseline price is £1,500.

Dimensions: 130 x 97 cm - not framed

Major Poinsett tends to his plants.


Jennie Tuffs is from London, now based in rural Scotland near Edinburgh. Her paintings of flowers are recognised, not least by botanists, for their ability to capture and release the spirit trapped in the heart of the bloom. Indigenous to Mexico and Central America, the poinsettia was first described by Europeans in 1834. It derives its common English name from Joel Roberts Poinsett, the first

United States minister to Mexico, who is credited with introducing the plant to the US in the 1820s. He is depicted here by his gloved hand.

Jennie still works mainly in watercolour and paintings half this size have recently sold for twice the figure we are suggesting.


 £1,500

Frame

94.5 x 70.5 cm

Painting 75 x 49.5 cm

Not all the items were sold

We have all the below items available to buy plus more, please visit our shopify site to see what is available.

Donations

We are immensely grateful for the generous donations which have up to now covered the external costs of editing the videos on this website but which we now need to fund the recruitment of a team to manage the pilots.


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