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Menampilkan postingan dari Juli, 2017

Looking at Me - an arts and dementia initiative

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Artist Terri Sweeney has been running some innovative mosaic workshops at the arts charity Celf o Gwmpas in Llandrindod Wells over the past few weeks (the last session was earlier today). They were specifically aimed at people living with dementia and those close to them. Last week the PAVO meeting rooms were fully booked so we relocated to the Celf gallery for our team meeting. During a break I had the perfect opportunity to catch up with Anca Pancu, Project Co-ordinator at Celf, to find out more about how the workshops went. Tell us more about your role at Celf In this particular project, ‘Reaching Out, Drawing In,’ my role was to schedule dates and select artists to deliver sessions in liaison with the artists, volunteers and participants for each of the series of workshop sessions. I market our programme of workshop activities to relevant audiences and networks, manage the workshop bookings, and collect the relevant materials for evaluation purposes. Who were the workshops for?...

Team building with a Treasure Hunt

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The end is finally in sight! But yew won't need the buoyancy aid to rescue Clue No 8 Take two PAVO staff teams, 8 clues, an amazing outdoor local venue and a dry June afternoon day – and what do you have? Well, as it turns out, a really fun opportunity to find out more about your colleagues’ work whilst exercising and enjoying Nature at the same time! The perfect team building session! It all started when our mental health team was asked to devise a “walk and talk” style engagement activity – along the lines of the dementia walks which have been taking place in North Powys for the past couple of years and which we wrote about here . The idea is that people in contact with mental health services, and those close to them, will have the opportunity to participate in a walk with people planning and providing those services (this activity is being planned for Autumn 2017). The dementia walks are very successful, as participants feel relaxed and happy to open up in a more informal enviro...

Pegasus – changing the way we talk to Dyfed-Powys Police

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PCSO Aileen Stewart - 2nd from right, with colleagues from Dyfed Powys Police, PAVO and Mid & West Wales Fire Service In May I met Police Community Support Officer Aileen Stewart at the Dementia Information Day in Newtown during Dementia Awareness Week. Aileen gave me an update about the Pegasus communication scheme used by police officers in the Dyfed Powys force area, and it seemed like a blog post would provide the ideal opportunity to share the information with a wider audience to further promote the scheme’s use. First tell us a little about yourself and your role in Dyfed Powys Police I am PCSO Aileen Stewart and I work within the Neighbourhood Policing team in Newtown. I have worked as a PCSO for five years. As a PCSO we have various duties including high visibility patrols, public reassurance, safeguarding our community, gathering intelligence and dealing with anti-social behaviour. We also work closely with local agencies, for example housing, mental health services and ...

CRAZYWISE - the Brecon screening

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“Crazy…or wise? The traditional wisdom of indigenous cultures often contradicts modern views about a mental health crisis. Is it a ‘calling’ to grow or just a ‘broken brain’? The documentary CRAZYWISE explores what can be learned from people around the world who have turned their psychological crisis into a positive transformative experience.” On the longest (and probably hottest) day of 2017 I was at The Wellington Hotel in Brecon with PAVO colleagues, community groups, staff from mental health services and individuals to watch this new documentary film by directors Phil Borges and Kevin Tomlinson. The free community screening had been arranged by Avril Meyler of Emerging Paradigms in partnership with PAVO and Brecon community organisations. My colleagues Anne Woods, Philip Moisson and Jane Cooke helped organise the event and also facilitated the open discussion sessions following the screening. Regular readers of this blog will know that we are keen to promote alternative approaches ...