Posted 15th July 2021
Dyscover Golfers finished the Summer Course last week, with Maggie winning Karl’s £10 Challenge. She putted the ball onto the £10 note and because it stopped she won the money!
The group have enjoyed meeting every week at Leatherhead Gold Club and have plans to have some Roll-Up golf sessions over the summer break.
Posted 9th July 2021
Our Gardeners have spent over 3 years totally rennovating and maintaining the courtyard garden at Leatherhead. The results are absolutely spectacular and we decided to host an Open Garden for Members and Volunteers. The aim was to showcase the hard work and beautiful results, but also to say a big thank you to Sue Edwards our horticulturalist who has coached the gardening team throughout. Her hard work and dedication has benefitted everyone. It was wonderful to see Members venturing out on their first visit back to our headquarters, ahead of returning to face-to-face groups next term.
Posted 24th June 2021
Our Wednesday Group are getting out and about as restrictions ease. Susie organised a trip to Central London yesterday and met with other Members at the London Eye. For some this was the first time they had travelled by train by themselves following their stroke.
Julian said he had a great day, especially as this was his first trip into London for 18 months.
Posted 24th June 2021
Many Members are beginning to enjoy long awaited staycations. Sarah was so happy to join her regular Zoom group from her caravan whilst holidaying in Hampshire.
Posted 15th June 2021
#AphasiaAwarenessMonth We asked our beneficiaries with #aphasia ‘how does it feel to have aphasia?’ and ‘what helps?’
Posted 15th June 2021
#carersweek2021 Dyscover not only supports people with #aphasia and #PPA but their families too.
Part of our ethos is to support whole families, our family support programme offers practical, emotional and signposting advice. Our group SLT’s offer these termly sessions to all of our relatives and carers as many adjust to living with aphasia.
We have an ‘open door’ policy at Dyscover and offer support and advice to relatives living with aphasia. Many carers need emotional support at different stages of their relatives recovery journey.
We feel it is very important that relatives are educated about aphasia/Primary Progressive Aphasia (PPA) and understand their relatives specific communication needs and how to support these. This is why we offer group and 1:1 Conversation Partner courses and information sessions for whole families.
Connection and Peer support is really important for both our beneficiaries and our carers. We cannot wait to get back to offering social trips and events to families. One of our most popular is an outdoor activities day for whole families with children, who may perhaps face too many barriers when trying to organise these ‘fun’ days as a family. We not only want to provide the accessibility but also a chance for our younger carers to connect with other peers who also have a parent with aphasia.
Posted 15th June 2021
We recently celebrated Volunteers’ Week (1-7th June) by sharing a thank you video the staff had made thanking all of our wonderful volunteers for their hard work.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ao2zYScui64
We currently have 22 Dyscover at Home Volunteers helping in our online groups or making a weekly phone call to a member and many other volunteers such as trustees who provide us with leadership and governance. We also have volunteers that help us in our garden, with our newsletter, with our Top Draw scheme, community fundraising and with administration duties.
Many of our volunteers go on to study Speech and Language therapy or get a job in this field – 5 volunteers have done this over the last 12 months, with 4 more due to move on at the end of this term.
We also profiled volunteer Barry who shared his experiences of volunteering with Dyscover. Barry felt that volunteering and helping others with the same condition ‘gives him a warm feel inside’ and that making new friends has ‘helped his confidence and general well-being’.
Do visit our Facebook Page to see the posts in full.
Posted 18th May 2021
The groups had some lively discussions last week on the topic of Gadgets and Technology. Members shared their favourite gadgets, which ranged from mobile phones and TV to cake mixers and even rubber bands! Nial showed his groups a neat device he uses to clamp a beer bottle, enabling him to open it with just one hand. Sarah shared a Bra Angel gadget for helping a lady put on her bra one-handed. Members agreed that technology had been hugely beneficial for them since their stroke and also during the COVID pandemic, helping them to stay in touch with family and friends – including those at Dyscover!
Posted 18th May 2021
In conversations this week in our new INS group we discussed the use of drawing as a strategy to aid communication but also how producing art can have therapeutic benefits. Josephine shared with the group a picture she had drawn (with her left hand) after a mindfulness session she’d had this week. She described how the mindfulness session had made her feel ‘joy’ and ‘hope’ which she has captured so beautifully in her drawing. Producing this drawing made her feel happy and relaxed she said.
Posted 28th April 2021
Art is back on Zoom with Professional Artist, Alison. This time we practiced our ellipses to begin with and then moved on to create many individual and impressive bowls of fruit.
Alison said what a lovely session is was and how glad she was to see everyone again. Renee hadn’t picked up her drawing pencils for over 4 years but thoroughly enjoyed getting back into one of her favourite past times.
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