Student Blog about Hampden Event 2012

I have been volunteering with Easy Ayrshire Alzheimer Scotland since September and as part of that I have been involved in their football reminiscence group in Kilmarnock. Through going to these monthly groups I have met some wonderfully interesting men and their wives. When the session starts I find that there is a transformation in the men, they are not just a person with a diagnosis of a dementia at a group but a football fan debating with their peers about the best players, their favourite teams and the best goals. I find it amazing that something like football can bring together a group of people and evoke such passionate memories of the game they loved growing up and still love now. When we took the group to the second day of the memories fc conference at Hampden you could see the spark in their eye as they walked round the museum seeing the players they watched from the stalls and the team strips they respected so much. We had the pleasure of having a former player who is part of our group attend the conference with us. The respect and admiration of the other men we met at the conference towards him was amazing. He was treated like a celebrity and listening to the men speak about him, recounting the tales of how he played the game and his accolades I can understand now why he is in the hall of fame and so respected. Being involved in Memories FC and football reminiscence groups has helped me learn that even though these people have a diagnosis of dementia they still feel the passion and count themselves as a fan of the football team they grew up supporting.

Jennifer Love (Year 2 Mental Health Student)

Dementia In Scotland

So the Scottish Government are reviewing and revising the 2012 Dementia Strategy. What changes will we see on the ground for people living with dementia and family carers living with dementia. We must make the rhetoric into reality. We must do something to stop the time-lag between the good words and the changes on the ground.... Good words but what will we see? How will things change?
Please watch one mans message...... This could be any of us......

GCU Students hand over fundraising cheque to Alzheimer Scotland at Memories FC Conference

Students from GCU Mental Health Nursing Society handed over a cheque for over £700 to Henry Simmons CEO of Alzheimer Scotland at the recent Memories FC Conference at Hampden Park. The students were at Hampden, where they acted as Hosts for the over 250 people with dementia and their family carers who were there for a day of Football Based Reminiscence.

Mr Simmons said:

"I left the two day Memories FC event filled with hope, the strength and commitment of our partnership and GCU's lead role in developing the Knowledge Exchange Partnership is an example of what it truly means to face dementia together. I was also so inspired by the commitment and dedication of all the mental health students whose volunteer efforts made the event possible. I was able to talk to many of them during the event and I was very impressed by their attitude towards working with people with dementia and by the depth of their understanding, receiving a cheque for over £700 from the students fundraising activities was pretty much the icing on the cake and I want to express my most sincere gratitude to all of them for this. These funds will go to directly support the delivery of the Football Memories project which is run entirely from fundraised donations like this.

However perhaps the most inspiring memory and thought I will be left with  is the memory of a room filled with people with dementia, some of them with their families, many others supported by professional carers but all of them collectively sharing in the wonderful memory of football, right in the heart of the home of our national game. That collective  moment will last for me for long time, for in that moment we all forgot about dementia and remembered people. I cannot thank the team at GCU enough for organising this event it was wonderful."

Memories FC is a knowledge exchange partnership between GCU, Alzheiemer Scotland, The Scottish Football Museum, UWS, St Louis University and The European Former Players Association. It is funded by AHRC & SFC.