A little About Vicky Churchill (FOCH organiser)
Being a family member with a parent in a care home and having some 35 years
experience of events and the entertainment business, I saw an opportunity that I
felt sure would be attractive to both families and carers. I felt there was a
gap between families and carers, which this project certainly helps to close.
I meet residents with dementia on a regular basis. Many of them struggle with
trying to remember who they are or where they live, but this is totally
forgotten when you see the same resident singing every word of every verse and
chorus from songs that were written as far back as the forties.
This proves that music really is the food of fun and life!
In 2009 I watched a BBC 2 documentary by Gerry Robinson titled ‘Can Gerry
Robinson Fix The Care Industry’, this was all about Care Homes and what goes on
inside them.
There are now ¼ million people in care homes in the UK. During the next 20 years
over 1 million of us will have dementia and the chances that many of us will
find ourselves in a residential care home are extremely high.
Quite coincidentally while this show was being aired, I was having to deal with
the difficulties of putting my own mother into care, and so things were very
relevant to me at the time of watching this programme.
A participant on the programme was a man called Dr David Sheard, a care
consultant and chief executive and founder of Dementia Care Matters.
www.dementiacarematters.com. I attended one of David’s person centred Dementia
course’s and I admire him greatly for his forward-thinking attitude and
implementing change in the care industry. It was David that set me on the road
to what I am doing now and how I feel about Care Homes today.