Access all ages - Local Mind Associations

Many local Mind associations (LMAs) provide specialist projects from older people.Find your nearest LMA here

Montrose House, East Suffolk Mind

Springfield Mind Day Centre, Stratford-upon-Avon

MindCare Services for people with Dementia, Bromley Mind

Chichester Mind's Chestnuts Saturday Club

Family Support Service, Central Notts Mind

The Doves project, Havering Mind

Montrose House, East Suffolk Mind

Montrose House is a ten-bedroom residential care home that provides long term accommodation and support for older people with mental health problems. It was not originally set up to be a home specifically for older people, but has grown organically as residents have lived and grown older together. Montrose House is run as close to a family home as is possible, with each resident free to come and go as they please, and visitors frequently welcomed. Residents have their own room and keys to the front door. Each resident is allocated a keyworker, a GP and a care coordinator to look after their welfare, meals and the domestic running of the house is maintained by the staff.

Montrose House is the only service of its type locally, and consequently there are plenty of referrals for any vacancies. Despite this, the funding for the project has been limited, and it is a frustration for East Suffolk Mind that the home receives referrals for service users that it is unable to help without extra resources. Despite these funding problems, Montrose House provides a high quality of living to its residents, with a range of opportunities and choices that few other services in the area provide, and looks forward to continuing in the same vein for many years to come.

Contact Bob Hawkins. T: 01473 71 00 33
email: Montrose@eastsuffolkmind.org.uk

Back to top

Springfield Mind Day Centre, Stratford-upon-Avon

Springfield Mind Day Centre provides an invaluable service to people over the age of 65, who have been excluded from social services-run day centres in the area because of their age. There are no other services for older people who experience mental distress in the Stratford-upon-Avon area. The group has meetings once a week at which service users can engage in a range of activities, from bingo and quizzes to craft activities and fortnightly keep fit. The group has been active for less than year but its impact is already being felt by those that attend the day centre: "[It's a] very enjoyable group – it stops me for feeling isolated and allows me time to mix with other people of my age".

Contact Gill Smith T: 01789 29 86 15

Back to top

MindCare Services for people with Dementia, Bromley Mind

Betty A's life disintegrated in front of her eyes one windy day in March 2003. She was at an NHS Memory Clinic, and her husband George had just been diagnosed with Vascular Dementia and non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma.

Betty loved her husband – they had been married 54 years, having met just after the war. They had brought up two sons together, shared holidays and hobbies. She wanted to care for George at home but as his dementia became worse she was beginning to feel like a prisoner in her own home, unable to leave him alone for a minute.

Bromley Mind's 'MindCare Dementia Services' saved the day, according to Betty, preventing an act of love from becoming an intolerable burden. 

MindCare provides a package of care for George and Betty including

• day centre attendance four days a week -  Betty uses this time to go to yoga classes, meet friends, shop and attend a carer's group
• sitting services in their home, allowing Betty to attend hospital and other occasional appointments for herself
• weekend respite service freeing Betty to visit her family for a weekend break now and then.

Betty appreciates the support that MindCare staff give to her, including practical advice on coping with George's incontinence and angry outbursts.  Betty is managing at the moment, but when she needs extra help in the home MindCare will be able to provide, under a contract with the local authority, a domiciliary care service offering personal care to George in his own home.

MindCare’s range of services enable people with dementia to remain at home for as long as possible. The person-centred approach is key.  Staff find out as much as possible about both service user and carer so that changes in their lifestyle are kept to a minimum. This also helps them understand causes of distress and manage challenging behaviour through interpersonal, rather than medical, interventions.

Back to top

Chichester Mind's Chestnuts Saturday Club

Chichester Mind’s Chestnuts Saturday Club provides weekend respite care for people living with dementia and Alzheimer’s disease and their carers. The Club was set up in 1992 with support from West Sussex County Council. It provides a stimulating, happy and enjoyable day for those who attend, with a wide-ranging and flexible programme of activities, which varies according to the season. In the summer, the group embarks on outings by minibus to various local attractions or for picnics on the South Downs, as well as light physical activities such as carpet bowls or hoop-la. In the winter the group is entertained by local choirs and musicians, as well as practising arts and crafts. The club has been a great success; one of the service users perhaps sums it up best: "I forget every day of the week, but I always remember Saturdays".

For further information contact Jane Haskins of Chichester Mind on 01243 84 23 36

Back to top

Family Support Service, Central Notts Mind

Central Notts Family Support service provides respite for people with dementia and their carers, in the form of day care at various centres throughout central Nottinghamshire. Service users are encouraged to engage in a variety of activities including hoopla, dominoes and flower arranging. They can also have manicure or a foot-spa. In providing this service, the project provides respite for carers, and it is the belief of the project that much can be achieved by caring for the carers as well as the service users. The service is popular because it provides carers with regular breaks, safe in the knowledge that their relative is in safe hands, while at the same time giving the relative a chance to integrate with the community and socialise with others.

The project has been very successful at preventing admissions to hospital and nursing homes, and last year had over 7,000 attendees to their 12 centres. The response from users, carers and professional services has been overwhelmingly positive, with many stating that without the intervention of the project, a huge gap would become immediately apparent in services for older people. The Family Support Service has become an essential part in carers and users’ lives by providing a high-quality, well-organised and effective day service. The project attributes its success to its collaboration with outside agencies such as council social services and other voluntary agencies, as well as regular consultations with service users and carers.

Contact: Liz Moore
Tel: 01623 65 80 44
email: welcome@centralnottsmind.fsworld.co.uk

Back to top

The Doves project, Havering Mind

The Doves project was set up by Havering Mind in 1997 in reaction to the lack of facilities provided locally for older people with mental distress. It provides day care services and advocacy support for its users, and encourages service users to build up friendships with each other and engage with the community. Service users attend on specific days according to the area that they live in. This enables friendships to grow between people who live near each other, and this makes meeting outside the centre easier. This system has helped to reduce isolation, and has enabled service users to support each other outside of daycentre hours. Alongside this friendship and companionship Doves has also provided vital advocacy support to service users who feel that they have been discriminated against because of their age, for example in disputes with companies, or in claiming housing benefit.

Doves sends out a regular programme to its members to keep them informed of events and activities that are happening that month. This generally includes a wide variety of arts and crafts, regular talks from outside speakers, a podiatry service and regular trips out to the seaside and local places of interest, as well as a yearly holiday away.

"I do things with the group that I would never do myself."

"I look forward to coming here all week."

Contact: Christine Roffey
email: havmindhq@hotmail.com