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Join the
residents at Balhousie Wheatlands Care Home as they participate in a foreign
language workshop with Lingo Flamingo.
Balhousie Wheatlands Care Home
introduces foreign language workshops to help tackle dementia
A Stirlingshire Care Home has introduced an innovative series
of workshops designed to help residents fight the effects of dementia. Balhousie
Wheatlands Care Home in Bonnybridge is helping tackle the disease, which sees
7.7 million new cases worldwide every year, by offering a range of foreign
language workshops to their residents.
Run by a newly formed social enterprise, Lingo Flamingo CIC,
the tailored sessions help residents with early forms of dementia to improve
communication, cognitive development and inter-personal skills, as well as
build their confidence. It is believed that speaking multiple languages can
delay the onset of dementia by up to five years.
Running for twelve weeks, the workshops have included German
classes, where residents have discovered the German words that they already use
with the English language. Residents have participated in music sessions,
learned memory techniques, rhyme and reason, word association as well as an
array of other activities.
Many of the instructors leading the workshops are either
international students or refugees. This is part of Lingo Flamingo’s wider
vision to facilitate more opportunities to bring together younger and older
members of the community as well as bring together different cultures and
backgrounds.
Establishing the business last year, Lingo Flamingo Founder,
Robbie Norval has seen the impact foreign language workshops have had on those
living with dementia. Robbie commented:
“I have worked in Care Homes in the past and have seen how
isolating and lonely life can be for people living with dementia. Working with
languages in other countries highlighted to me just how empowering language
based workshops can be for those living with the disease, from helping to
improve memory capacity, to offering a safe and inspiring place for people to
enjoy themselves.
The workshops are not curriculum based, with a focus on
enjoyment and building confidence through praise-based learning. Robbie added:
“When people first join a workshop, they can be a bit shy at
first, but they soon get into the flow and rhythm of the classes. It’s a great
thing to see. Our workshops are very much activity-based and are designed to be
a balance between enjoyment and stimulation. For example, in our French
workshops, we run tasting sessions where people smell and eat croissants to
help awaken senses.”
Grace Sloan, Home Manager at Balhousie Wheatlands Care Home,
added:
“Lingo Flamingo’s foreign language workshops have proved
very popular with many of our residents. It is fantastic to see how they
respond to the activities and the enjoyment they get out of every session.
Dementia can be a very isolating and frightening illness and we are delighted
to be working with Lingo Flamingo to help residents use these inspiring
techniques to help slow down the effects of the disease. This is an excellent
way to help our residents to continue to participate in community initiatives.”
To find out more about Balhousie Care Group, visit www.balhousiecare.co.uk
For more information about Lingo Flamingo, visit www.lingoflamingo.org
ENDS
For further information contact Anna Gunn on 01738 658187 or
a.gunn@volpa.co.uk