The Dementia Core Group .

This group consists of representatives from the three churches (St Mary’s Walkley, St Mark’s Broomhill and St John’s) of the South Hallam Mission Area. The task of this group is to broadly outline the continuing movement towards increasing dementia awareness and action in the mission area while allowing some flexibility in the separate parishes to deliver it according to the individual wishes and needs of each parish. There are no additional resources allocated to the group. The Core Group meetings are relatively infrequent (3-4 times a year) but are undoubtedly productive.  

The Core Group is a member of the Sheffield Dementia Action Alliance (SDAA) which works citywide across different organisations to raise the awareness of dementia among their staff and clients. As part of our SDAA membership we have to produce two annual (ratifiable) pledges to indicate our plans for the forthcoming year and deliver them. In May/June 2023 the Core Group pledged to organise the design and delivery of Christmas and Easter cards suitable for people with dementia. The responsibility for designing the cards rotated across the three parishes and used the skills of children or adults of those parishes, The cards were to be given to all residents of the dementia care homes in the mission area. Secondly the group pledged to construct and present an act of worship, specifically for people on the dementia pathway and their carers, to be held in one of our mission area churches. This was to be in addition to the regular services provided by our churches to the care homes. This service entitled “Hymns for Harvest” took place at St Mark’s church on Sunday October 1st followed by afternoon tea. Parishioners from the three different churches volunteered to be helpers. The service and tea was much enjoyed by those attending but afterwards the Core Group felt that by taking the service to the care homes we could make it available to more residents. This is our plan for Harvest 2024.Our 2023-2024 pledges have been fulfilled. 

At the end of 2023 members of the congregation of St Mary’s were able to resume leading monthly services in the dementia care home (Moorend Place) in their parish so now all the homes in our mission area have a regular act of worship for their residents if they wish. 

For Dementia Action Week (May 2023) the Core Group wrote a special Dementia Awareness Prayer for use in the three churches and by their congregations. This could be taken home as a prayer card, spoken during the regular services or used in silent prayer and will be used again this year by St John’s during Dementia Action Week.  

An “Action” taken by St John’s in 2023 involved a small set of books related to dementia being incorporated into the church library. These covered a range of dementia related topics ranging from a basic guidebook suitable for carers to autobiographies, some books for children and the theology of dementia. 

As part of the Action Week 2023 the national Alzheimer’s Society had asked for volunteers to attend Morrison’s supermarkets to collect money for their ongoing work. Several members of St John’s congregation volunteered to attend Morrison’s at Hillsborough and were amazed at the generosity of the customers there and were moved by hearing many describing their carer experiences. 
 

This week we, at St John’s, are recognising Dementia Awareness Week by trying to raise our own personal awareness of dementia. This is in order to enable us to communicate better with people on the dementia pathway and support them and their loved ones more effectively and compassionately.

Poems and Prayers

Dementia Awareness Prayer

Heavenly Father, we pray for all those who travel the dementia pathway, and carers who journey with them. Be with them, merciful Lord, that despite all the problems that they encounter, they may truly know your love and your support, which can bring hope and light in even the darkest of times and during the most difficult of journeys.
Amen.
This prayer was written by our Mission Area Dementia Core Group for Dementia Action Week 2023

For more prayers and poems please see below:
A prayer for by a person with dementia
A child's prayer for people with dementia
Walk with me