Wendover Dementia Support
Charity no. 1182184
Contact address: 19a Wharf Road, Wendover, Bucks, HP22 6HA
Annual Report for the year ending 22 February 2022
1. Structure and Governance
The constitution was adopted on 22 February 2019 as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation.
Trustees during the year:
Dr Philippa W Moreton (Chair) appointed on 22 February 2019 for a term of four years
Dr C S Trower appointed on 22 February 2019 for a term of three years
Mrs S Chattle appointed on 31 October 2020 for a term of three years
Mr R H Duggan appointed 26 January 2022 for a term of three years
Mr M H S Thomas appointed 26 January 2022 for a term of three years
The charitable objects, as set out in the constitution, are “to help people with a diagnosis of dementia and also their carers/families who are resident primarily, but not exclusively, in the Wendover area”.
The charity achieves these objects by:
helping people with a diagnosis of dementia, and their carers/families, to adjust and live well with the condition which can be disruptive to a normal family life and stressful for those involved;
providing specialist advice from professionally trained volunteers as well as signposting and support both on a one-to-one basis and through group activities;
working in conjunction with medical professionals and other support groups to enhance the quality of life for all involved;
providing opportunities for people with a diagnosis of dementia and their carers/families to meet on a social basis and learn from each other’s experiences.
The charity’s vision:
We believe in a positive approach to dementia where every person living with dementia can be helped to live with a sustained sense of wellbeing and contentment. However this is much more likely if the family are given the right information, help and advice. That is why much of what we do is helping and coaching families in understanding their loved one, and helping them find the best way to communicate, stimulate and support. Many of our visitors feel isolated and dispirited so it is essential that from the beginning they feel cared for in a warm, safe, enjoyable place – our Monday Club café. We also realise that every family is unique and the support we offer can be adjusted once we know
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and understand the family through home visits and the involvement of the sons and daughters in a Family Support Group.
Trustees and appropriate volunteers are DBS-checked.
The Trustees confirm they have complied with the duty in section 4 of the Charities Act 2006 to have due regard to the public benefit guidance.
The trustees are satisfied the charity’s risk management policy and procedures adequately address the risks to Wendover Dementia Support arising from its activities.
Activity during the year
We are currently actively supporting 52 families and continue to accept at least one new referral every week. We re-opened the Monday Club café at the end of July 2021 after the pandemic.
Home visits. Most of our referrals come from the Westongrove partnership of three local GP surgeries, usually the Complex Care Team, and our first phone call is to arrange to do a home visit. Two of our volunteers from the home visiting team go on the visit, one to spend time with the person with dementia and the other to speak separately to the family carer. The purpose of the visit is to introduce ourselves, offer any information, help and advice and to get to know them well enough to plan the best introduction to activities in the café. Further home visits are offered as required – usually when the family has a dilemma or they need help to plan ahead.
Our Monday Club café is split into two sessions in order to accommodate everyone. We continue to provide a warm welcoming place where individuals and couples can get advice and support each other. Visitors not only have coffee and home-made cake, but are able to take part in a whole range of enjoyable activities – from painting and crafts, to knitting and flower arranging while others enjoy a variety of games such as dominoes. We are all proud of the fact that our knitting has resulted in 10 blankets being sent to Syria, 33 blankets to the Women’s Refuge and 40 baby sets /30 baby blankets to the Neonatal Unit at Stoke Mandeville. One of our visitors was encouraged to rediscover her sewing machine and made and sold wonderful facemasks – resulting in a substantial donation to our charity.
Some volunteers have had training in Cognitive Stimulation Therapy and the activities are designed to stimulate, boost confidence and enhance competence. We have been lent an interactive Magic Table and every session includes live music, singing and often spontaneous dancing. Many families are astonished to see their loved ones joining in, smiling and laughing and they take away many ideas about how to do things at home.
Our volunteers attend extensive briefing and de-briefing sessions before and after the café. They are extremely skilled in talking to people with dementia and encouraging and prompting them when doing activities. The layout of the room, the activities and the topics of conversation are carefully planned for each individual and their family carer so they have the best experience possible.
We also use the Cafe as a time when we can give 1:1 sessions of support to family carers. We liaise regularly with the Westongrove Complex Care Team. We also work closely with local care agencies and we have started introductory coaching sessions for paid carers when they first start with one of our families. We have a dedicated WDS phone and families can leave a message or email us at any time.
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The Family Support Group is thriving, and usually about 25 sons and daughters come to our regular Saturday morning workshops, some from a long distance. We are grateful to our experienced educational consultant Sally Blackden for help running these workshops. The workshops are supplemented with a WhatsApp group and facilitated family meetings on Zoom.
The Pandemic
The restrictive conditions of the pandemic from March 2020 to July 2021, the period when we were unable to open the Monday Café, meant that our visitors and their families were particularly hard hit. All their normal sources of support were closed to them and even their own families were unable to visit. The main family carers, usually the husband or wife, were likely to find lockdown almost unbearable and we were greatly concerned for them and also for people with dementia living alone who would inevitably find the situation and isolation incomprehensible. We sadly had to close the Café, stop home visits and cancelled Family Support Group workshops but our volunteers were determined to continue to support our families and we managed to transform our service over the course of a few days. Each volunteer each took on the responsibility of phoning one or two families once or twice every week. This was supplemented with Easter cards and birthday gifts left on doorsteps and regular Newsletters. We started our Café at Home service where activities, resources and music systems were given out to families. The music systems were simply designed for people with dementia and came with headsets and pre-recorded Café music. There is much evidence that music can reduce anxiety and support cognition for people with dementia.
As restrictions came and went, the phone calls were supplemented with doorstep and garden visits – anything to help people feel cared for and reduce the desperate isolation. Over these difficult months we were so proud of our volunteers many of whom have developed lasting friendships with our visitors. At the same time, we continued to support and coach the sons and daughters on Zoom – many of whom were in despair trying to support their parents remotely.
When the COVID vaccinations started we made sure that all our visitors were vaccinated and our voluntary drivers teamed up with the Friends of Wendover Health Centre drivers and others to form a driving service to take people for their vaccinations.
During the pandemic we had continued to take new referrals, doing home assessments on Zoom and our willing volunteers taking on more families to support on the phone. These families were struggling with their inability to see health or social care professionals face to face and the closure of the Memory clinic which prevented families getting the diagnosis they needed. By July 2021 we were able to cautiously re-open the Monday Club café and by that time we were supporting 42 families, double the number we were supporting before the pandemic. For most of these families we were the only source of information, help and advice that was available to them – and they told us that the regular phone calls from our volunteers was the only contact with the community they had. We were very grateful to the Parish Council to be given an award for our services during the pandemic.
Our website has been revamped (www.wendoverds.org.uk) - it provides a wide range of information about WDS for families before they contact us. It is also a source of reference for everything to do with dementia, including an FAQ section giving advice, links and suggestions for the common everyday dilemmas and situations most families face at some time or another. Our supporters and funders will find all the information they need about our governance and the bulletin board on the front page will be updated regularly with news of local resources and dementia friendly events. www.wendoverds.org.uk
Our volunteers have formed a remarkable team who together provide meaningful support to an increasingly large number of families. When we started we had 15 volunteers who all received basic dementia and safeguarding training, while three senior volunteers undertook much more extensive training with the Contented Dementia Trust and became qualified as coach and practitioner.
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Now the word has spread that our volunteers do a very fidfillin& enjoyable and worthwhile job and we now bav¢ 27 volunteers plus 6 voluntary drivers. 5 of those volunteers are Tnte¢S 3 other volunteers make up a committee of 8- all of whom do all enornious amount of work both with the visitors and behind th¢ scenes to ensure fifftding and finwTrces are in pl and that we have all the correct guidelines alld proto¢ols. We pride ourselves that we keep to the highest standards of ¢onfidentiality, saf¢guardin8 practice and overall professionalism which is essential when suppottin8 vulnerable adults. 2. Finanees Our fllwices are sound. Funding during the year came from donations and local government grants Lionel Abel Smith Tnt (£3,000), Wendover Parish Cowicii (£3,000) and Bud(inghamshire Coullcil (£3,000). Declaration The tmst¢¢s declare that they have approved th¢ ttwtees, report above. Signed on b¢half of the CharÉty's trustees Full name.. Philippa Wren Mor¢ton Position.. Trustee and Chairn]an Dat¢- 22 August 2022
WENDOVER DEMENTIA SUPPORT REGISTERED cHARy No 1182184 INCOME AND EXPENDITURE ACCOUNT YEAR ENDING 22 FEBRUARY 2022 Martin Thomas Treasurer I have examined the record5 and believethat the accounts are an accurate representation of the finaTrcial ststus ofthe char"ty. 5 K Bishop Independent Examiner Date.. IC)
Wendover Dementia Support - Accounts Foryear endlng 22 February 2022 2021 Income Grants Music Playergrant C()rp donations Café donatlons Personal donations Memorial donation5 Other donations Monthly giving Gift aid refund Amazonsmile Just G*ving Christmas cards Refund 9,513 5.951 460 2CK) I,iio 595 1,230 460 1,018 316 715 580 502 29 160 30 Sncome I293 12,oao Expendlture Training 648 367 367 Café shed&base 20 chairs Free Church contbtn. Supplies- other Home visit costs Cash spendltransfer MusSc players New51etter linc ink&ppr £60pal Café Total 1,895 595 1,238 931 1.075 252 1,336 1,025 3,751 Comms Publlcity Web51te 1,900 80 Comms Total 174 Admln Datal)ase Insurance off costs Bank Charges phones DBS check5 Other 865 357 175 96 285 92 174 1,065 339 66 150 Admin Totsl 1,620 Empendlture 5.912 Surplus / defl¢lt 6,118
WENDOVER DEMENTIA SUPPORT RECEIPTS AND PAYMENTSACCOUNT (Contd.) FOR THE YEAR ENDED 22 FEBRUARY 2022 2021 Funds B/Fwd{openlng balances} Cash Current Account 252.CK) £ 7,099.54 £ 13,469.66 £ 13,469.66 £ 7,351.54 Net movement in funds 23 Feb to 22 Feb Café cash £ 3,343.57 75.C £ 6,370.12 252. Balance as at 22-Feb-22 £ I6,28 £13.469.66 Represented by: Cash Current Account Chq pres to bank, not yet in alc 75.00 £ 16,813.23 £13,459.66 10.00 Total £16.888.23 £13,469.66 Treasurer Independent Examiner