I received fantastic news today that Jackie Rosling, who heads up the development of the dementia strategy for Cumbria Care, is a finalist in the National Care Awards. I don’t know who the other nominees are but I do know that Jackie (having worked with her extensively) is an absolute gem. She is a phenomenal credit to her organisation and a great asset to the people who benefit from her efforts.

Jackie wont care (too much) if she wins or loses but she is deserving of all the accolades that come her way.

In my opinion, her great achievement has been to research, create and implement a structured and ambitious approach to delivering the highest quality of care possible. Those people within the organisation who work with and support Jackie also deserve recognition.

Although the project will continue to develop, there is much that others may learn from Cumbria Cares approach and determination to achieve ambitiously high standard.

I have no doubt that the results will be the envy of many and hopefully they will inspire others to follow their lead.

I’m sure the author of this (Joanne Knowles) won’t mind me publishing her comment here at all. It’s a proper kick in the crutch! I love stuff like this.

The overall advertising budget set for the *dementia* awareness campaign in 2009-10 was £1,587,106. The information requested is provided in the following table: Advertising type – Television £866,025 Radio £242,812 Print £393,247 Online £85,022 Source: Central Office of Information. Or we could have set up 1500 Cognitive Stimulation Therapy courses, meeting NICE guidelines and all the NDS priorities.

I’m so pleased to see this gathering some momentum and want to add my support to it too. It is nothing short of an obscenity that the political parties might use Dementia as a points scoring hobby horse for electioneering purposes. Sure it’s a ‘hot topic’ but one which had better see some promises delivered sooner rather than later. I hope this campaign will go some way to ensuring that happens.

Our 6 month project to formally study the influence of our products in a dementia care home environment has been completed. I’m now assessing the results prior to publishing.
I’ll welcome direct contact from anyone with a specific interest in this is.

I must do my bit to publicise two great books. Both quite different from each other.

“Rework” written by the founders of software company 37 signals. It’s different! http://37signals.com/rework/

Secondly, one of my absolute favourite books and the only one I’ve ever read 3 times – The Tao of Pooh, by Benjamin Hoff. If this doesn’t improve your outlook on life, nothing will!

However, if you are of the minority who dislike philosophical bears with small, pink, omnivorous side-kicks, you may want to give this one a miss.

What on earth are the mysterious forces which influence the ups and downs of business. We were flying in March!! Then the whole world disappeared in the first half of April and I genuinely rang my own numbers from my mobile phone at one point to ensure they were still on. Then this week. Bang! It’s all hands to the pump again!!
I’ve been in business for 16 years and I’ll never figure it out…..perhaps I should stop trying.

Let’s get this bit out of the way first: Jeremy is a really nice bloke…..never thought I’d say that in public about an MP.

In his role as the chair of the all party parliamentary group on dementia, he’s also got such an important role to play in the drive to improve dementia care.
I hope our recent discussions bare fruit and we get the opportunity to contribute our knowledge on the built environment.

The groups previous report on training and dementia care is a plain speaking, clear report which I hope is proving its worth.
A further report focussing on the relationship between the environment and dementia should serve to push more people to re-look at where people with dementia live, and how it affects their well being.
As the issues become more pressing, it’s important to understand that a well designed environment is also ‘good business’ and investment now will save colossal amounts of money in the future.