Our podcast guest today is Maxine Linnell. Maxine first tells us about her fascinating career, including working as psychotherapist for 30 years, alongside many other interesting teaching and facilitating positions. She trained in humanistic and Buddhist psychotherapy, and specialised in working with trauma. In her 60s she fulfilled her childhood dream: her first book was published.

Maxine talks about her close friend Kate, who died with Alzheimer’s during lockdown. When she recognised some changes in her own mind, she was determined to get a diagnosis quickly. She describes what happened to prompt this decision. Luckily, she got an appointment with a consultant neurologist. That was incredibly helpful: he was very respectful, he was honest, but he didn’t write her off. This consultant’s attitude was all about helping people to maintain their lives and carry on as normally as possible.

She talks about how scary it was after that initial diagnosis. She describes how she spent time preparing for what might come, and how she began to withdraw and lose her confidence about what she could do.

But then she explains how she made her big decision that she wasn’t going to withdraw from life. She describes how she continues to write, and how she has become a dementia advocate and activist. She shares how dementia has led her to be more outspoken, less diplomatic and to use writing to help dispel the myths people believe around dementia.

Maxine also shares her thoughts on the word Dementia and Alzheimer’s – and how she doesn’t like the way many people treat those with dementia. She finds it very helpful to be part of the dementia community where she meets other people who have dementia. But she thinks that everybody in society should treat each other with respect and care.

She describes how she has organised her world to live with dementia: she uses Alexa to help her remember what she has planned for each day, she has learned to recognise how some of her senses have changed, and sometimes she’s able to keep calm when something might scare her. But most importantly, she says understanding what’s happening enables her to make choices.

Hearing Maxine talk about her life with dementia is both moving and inspiring, and leads you to her vision: rather than think that everything someone living with dementia feels is a symptom of dementia, it’s important to listen deeply, to empathise and respond.

If you want to understand more about how Maxine lives with a diagnosis of dementia, we would encourage you to read her blog and poems on her website https://www.maxinelinnell.com/

You could also read Knowledge is Power, published by Innovations in Dementia. This booklet was written by people living with dementia, including Maxine. It is for people living with dementia, to support you in living as well as you can.

Dr Carol Sargent: https://sargentgroup.consulting/

Dr Tom Adler: https://getbide.com/

Our guest today is Michael Verde, from Texas, who from a very early age made the decision that he didn’t want to end up in a small universe and decided reading 100 pages a day would broaden his horizons.

Michael is now a writer, and founded Memory Bridge in 2003 after hearing someone on a documentary talk about people with dementia in a disparaging way and meeting someone from the Smithsonian Centre for Folk Life and Cultural Heritage.

Memory Bridge exists to end the emotional isolation of people with dementia. They bridge people with and without dementia to each other in life-changing ways, with educational programs hosted on three continents.

His passion is all about communicating with people, and he explains how people often feel disconnected from others, because they are not being emotionally cared for, creating emotionally isolation.

The training is designed to improve participants’ ability to attune to the emotions of a person with dementia and to establish a relationship of profound trust and mutual understanding, a foundation to all forms of person-centred care.

Michael describes how a Memory Bridge educational programmes use learnings from people with dementia to enable us to be present with each other in emotionally profound ways.

Memory Bridge participants are educated and encouraged to find a new way of being with people with dementia—a way that can turn awkward to flow, isolation to intimacy, and loneliness to companionship.

What is important is to give someone the kind of attention that enables people to feel that they belong and matter. He believes that communication is not a means to an end. It is the end.

‘Nobody is anybody without someone paying loving attention to him or her. ‘

You can find Michael’s website here: https://www.memorybridge.org/

You can contact us at the following:
Dr Carol Sargent: https://sargentgroup.consulting/
Dr Tom Adler: https://getbide.com/

Today’s guest is Steve Brine, @BrineHealth, former Health Minister and Chair of the Health Select Committee, and co-host of the podcast, Prevention is the New Cure, @PreventionPodc.

Steve tells us about his journey into politics. His interest in the environment was sparked as a youngster, and he thought that politics might be the place to go if he wanted to change the world. On his arrival at the House of Commons when asked what he wanted to do, he said he was interested in health. When Theresa May became Prime Minister, he became Public Health Minister.

We talk about how the world of politics and health worked, and some of the initiatives that Steve put into place during his time in the role. Interestingly, Steve explains how influence in politics works and differs depending on your job, and when chairing the Health Select Committee you are able to have significant influence on the agenda. He understands the value of primary care, and was instrumental in the development of Pharmacy First. He has also strongly campaigned for earlier cancer diagnosis.

We have a conversation about the disparity in NHS funding between primary and secondary care. He certainly doesn’t believe it should be the way it is, and shares his thoughts on the conundrum that faces the government, and the difficult political conversations that are needed.

Steve also talks about how important integrated care is for us to be able to be as inclusive as possible.

If you’d like to contact Steve:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/steve-brine-00979b1a1/
X: https://x.com/BrineHealth
Website: https://www.stevebrine.com/

You can contact us at the following:
Dr Carol Sargent: https://sargentgroup.consulting/
Dr Tom Adler: https://getbide.com/

Keith Wilson lives near Darlington, and before he retired, he worked in education. His last job was director of higher education at a local college. Five years ago, he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.

Keith shares that as an active person, he began to notice problems with his movement. Initially he thought it might be a brain tumour or multiple sclerosis, and his diagnosis of Parkinson’s was a slight relief.

His diagnosis was confirmed after doing lots of different tests, one of which was a DaTscan. A DaTscan is a brain scan which helps to diagnose conditions like dementia and Parkinson’s. It works by detecting the loss of nerve cells in the brain. Keith felt he was lucky having that, as it is less common here in the UK than it is in the US.

Because of Keith’s love of running and mountaineering, he wanted to keep active and not become a couch potato. He continued to climb and recognised that the adrenaline he got from climbing actually helped the symptoms of Parkinson’s to go away for a couple of hours. So, he started to explore the idea of creating dopamine or adrenaline hits on a daily basis to help fight his disease. To this end, he bought two VR headsets and he and his wife download activities and have found that these help.

Keith then bought 10 other VR headsets via crowdfunding and started to give talks around the region, showing what he was doing to help himself. He now runs regular events to help other people with both neurological conditions, and Parkinson’s to enjoy a huge range of different virtual activities. He shares some of the examples of how it has helped people. The program that Keith uses is accessible to everyone, and not an expensive solution.

He also talks about how, when he started this venture of using VR headsets, there was no research at all about VR and Parkinson’s. There were others for Alzheimer’s, dementia and strokes, but now there are many different research articles appearing.

You can find Keith on:
Facebook; the Darlington Parkinson’s support group page. https://www.facebook.com/groups/719576183066014

Email: kwilson252@hotmail.co.uk


You can contact us at the following:
Dr Carol Sargent: https://sargentgroup.consulting/
Dr Tom Adler: https://getbide.com/

Our podcast guest today is Nicole Smith from Australia. She is a nurse and a gerontologist who is extremely passionate about giving people who have dementia their best lives.

When you hear the story of Nicole’s upbringing, you will understand why she loves being with older people and why she fights for human rights for our elders.

After becoming a registered nurse, she was recruited by a nursing home and quickly given responsibility for a large dementia unit others didn’t want to manage. After many successful years working in this area, she decided there must be a better way to support our elders.

This is when she decided to create a different social model based around community, where people feel safe, happy and are connected with different generations. She established this model while bring up her children and studying for her master’s in Gerontology. Her model showed a difference, was recognised and shared on social media. This is when Dr Rodney stepped in and supported her to create a training programme enabling her to share the model with other professionals.

When the pandemic happened and people couldn’t meet, Nicole became a COVID responder, spending large chunks of time away from her family, responsible for crisis management in different Care Home throughout Australia. This reinforced a desperate need for alternatives to care homes and gave her renewed self confidence to reconnect with Dr Rodney to create a better model.

Together they have created their own care model, Community Home Australia. Listen and understand their care home solution and consider what you could learn and apply to your own life. Its truly person centred, where everybody supports one another as part of an extended family, with medical care available when needed.

Hear more about Nicole’s latest inclusive movement linking bright minds from across the globe who are passionately dedicated to making changes in the lives of our elders/older adults/loved ones.

You can email Nicole Smith at nicole@communityhomeaustralia.org
Find out about Community home Australia https://communityhomeaustralia.org/
Sign up for OpenTheDoors https://openthedoors.au/

You can contact us at the following:
Dr Carol Sargent: https://sargentgroup.consulting/
Dr Tom Adler: https://getbide.com/

Our guest today is Charles Lowe who is the chief executive of Digital Health and Care Alliance (DACA), he is an expert in telehealth and telecare.

Throughout his career he has worked on technologies to support others. He shares with us how he wanted to open people’s eyes to recognise what technology can do to help people and how everybody can become digitally literate.

Growing up, Charles did voluntary work with his mother and saw firsthand the challenges faced by a broad range of people, particularly as they got older.

From a young child Charles had a passion for electronic engineering. In the late 1960s while still at school, he built a computer from scratch and developed a system to automatically open and close his bedroom window. After studying Material Science at Cambridge, he developed electronic solutions for a range of companies.
Over the years Charles has been involved in many initiatives, working with different organisations, to engage people of all ages to embrace digital technology, including “take your grandparent to school day”. He recognises the lives of people caring for their loved ones could be improved through access to computers – allowing them to improve their mental health by continuing to work whilst caring.

At BT he led the development of their intranet and was instrumental in developing the first commercial digital offering from BT, including digitalisation of the police force and local governments departments.

We talk about the huge speed at which new technologies are being introduced, and discuss whether we are actually making the best of them or moving on to new ideas too quickly? He highlights the importance of digital innovations that now allow patients to be monitored in their own homes, speeding up treatment times and reducing the pressures on hospital admissions. He emphasises the knock-on effect that people can remain in their own homes, doctors can focus on people they need to see in person and fewer people need to travel to be treated.

As you’ll hear, Charles believes that with effective implementation of current telecare and telehealth we can make the world a more inclusive place for everybody.

You can email Charles at charles.lowe@dhaca.org.uk

You can contact us at the following:
Dr Carol Sargent: https://sargentgroup.consulting/
Dr Tom Adler: https://getbide.com/

Today’s guest on our podcast is Louise Thompson, who has set up the app Myfolks.

She tells us about growing up in a particularly poor area in the west end of Newcastle, in the North East of England. Louise’s first job was at the Freeman Hospital where she was involved in some cardiovascular research that was published in a medical journal. Through this work she managed to gain admission to Northumbria University, where she graduated with a degree in Law.

After gaining an MSc, while working in a senior corporate leadership position in Hampshire, Louise’s parents, who lived in the North East, became ill with dementia. There followed a desperate time, travelling backwards and forwards to support her parents, whilst working full time and managing the family home.

She talks about the issues her parents had, and although not needing personal care, they did need practical and emotional support. This is when she realised that she had to find some help but couldn’t find any.

So, she began to think about creating an app that would connect people who could provide support for those families who couldn’t book ahead and needed it in real time. Then, the app Myfolks was created.

Louise shares the challenges she had from the time taken to set up the app, the cost and the issues of being a solopreneur.

She shares that one in seven of us is now caring while still working, and how it has a disproportionate effect on women in the workforce. In addition, there can be even greater challenges for the smaller number of men who are carers, and the impact it can have on their ‘masculine’ identity and their self-esteem.

She talks about the important need for employers to understand when their employees are struggling with caring responsibilities for their parents, highlighting that it’s not just the pull on their time, but also the emotional strain.

Presently Myfolks is in the North East, Cumbria, St Helens, Warrington, Humberside, Lincolnshire and Sussex. Louise aims to focus on the coastal towns and the outskirts of large cities, because they tend to have a higher population of the elderly, and often have fewer services.

You can contact us at the following:
Louise Thompson: https://www.myfolks.uk/
Dr Carol Sargent: https://sargentgroup.consulting/
Dr Tom Adler: https://getbide.com/

Today’s guest is Jules Robinson from The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents – ROSPA. Jules is a guest who has an interest and expertise in falls and fall prevention.

Previously having worked in social housing, Jules’ background is in health and safety, and now she is the falls engagement lead at ROSPA. They campaign for better design elements with Safer by Design and Safer Stairs. They also want to educate both the public and professionals, which they are doing through their Fall Fighters campaign.

Jules talks about how falls are a huge problem for everyone, but also about the attitude that falls are almost expected as you get older. In her previous job she was involved in a project looking at the reasons people have falls, and looking at how falls can in fact be prevented. She also talks about how falls can be trivialised, when in fact the consequences of falls can be far more serious for older and vulnerable adults.

We talk about the risk of falls, not only at home, but also in the workplace, and how it is partly through recognising dangerous situations and potential risks of falls due to the environment that people are in. Many people don’t recognise where risks are, and it’s about educating them to be more aware, though obviously in the workplace there are distinct regulations that the employer is responsible for.

Jules also reiterated several times about how fall prevention advice needs to be a person-centred thing, because we all behave and think differently. This was evident when talking about the different reactions people had to wearing lanyards or fall-prevention devices around their necks.

Although falls are something that any of us can have, it is the older people who Jules is particularly hoping to help with her Fall Fighters campaign.

Find out more about RoSPA
RoSPA’s fall prevention hub for general home safety advice on falls:
https://www.rospa.com/policy/home-safety/advice-and-information/falls-prevention-hub

The fall prevention project in social housing: https://www.trentanddove.org/news/new-research-shows-avoidable-falls-in-the-home-can-be-reduced-by-69-per-cent-891/

And the RoSPA fall prevention toolkit based on the social housing project:
https://www.rospa.com/policy/home-safety/advice-and-information/falls-prevention-hub/professional-falls-advice/falls-and-their-impact-on-social-housing

You can contact us at the following:
Dr Carol Sargent: https://sargentgroup.consulting/
Dr Tom Adler: https://getbide.com/