Pupils from John Ray Infants School Braintree share memories

Essex Dementia Care invited local students to share their treasured memories for a competition run during Alzheimer’s Society Dementia Action Week 16 – 22 May.  The children were given a brief introduction to dementia and asked to present their favourite memories in any way they wished.

Kelly Bleasdale, Senior Manager for EDC said “As well as providing activity based care for our clients and support for their loved ones, it is very much part of our strategy to build local awareness of dementia whenever possible. 

Our theme headline was ‘They say elephants never forget, sadly sometimes people do’ and our brief introduction sheet gave the children a brief list of some of the changes in behaviour that they might notice in loved ones.  We hope that learning about these changes at an early age could help them have a better understanding of the challenges faced by those living with dementia.

For the competition, we put together three prizes per year group which were activity driven to suit the different age groups. Posters were produced for each classroom showing pictures of the prizes so everyone could see what they could win.

The school got fully on board with the project and we received a really enthusiastic response.  It was a tough task to choose just three winners per class as there were so many touching and creative entries.  Our team looked at each entry in detail to see how much effort had been put in and also to ascertain how key the memory was, meaning it was likely to stay in the child’s memory bank for years to come.

I attended the school’s Celebration Assembly on Friday 10th June and presented the prizes along with certificates to the winners.  It was a memorable occasion for me personally and I would like to thank the school and all the children that participated.”

For more information on all services and support provided by EDC please call 01245 363 789 to speak to an experienced team.

We have promised to help more people with DEMENTIA in 2024 and are happy to announce the opening of a new ‘Every Day Counts’ activity centre in WRITTLE, Chelmsford.

Click below to read about the opening of our new activity centre this January.