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Greater Moments

Do you want to be part of an exciting and innovative new project that captures the lived experience of those affected by Dementia?

What?

Dementia United have commissioned Social Sense and Hitch to develop a “Lived Experience Barometer” to measure in real time the experience of people living with dementia and those who care for them. This will help inform and enable improvements required locally and across Greater Manchester.

Greater Moments is a web-based platform that includes several features that will provide a range of benefits to the user.

Benefits

  • Tracking wellbeing – Understanding your moods helps you manage them and feel better faster. If you are more aware of your moods, you may be able to better manage your lifestyle choices, make informed health decisions, prevent or avoid triggers of negative moods, and work towards a better quality of life.
  • Localised information – We also want to provide an easier way for individuals to connect within their communities in meaningful ways, which we also know can significantly improve purpose and wellbeing.
  • Scheduling events – A daily agenda may be able to help a person with dementia cope with their short-term memory loss. Establishing a predictable pattern of events can help transfer the schedule of a daily routine into the long-term memory portion of the brain, helping a person retain their ability to perform activities of daily life.
  • Service rating – By rating your experiences of services, activities or events, we want to identify and highlight good practice to others affected by dementia. The information collected will also help local commissioning raise standards of services locally and nationally.
  • Reflective journaling – “Not only can journaling ease the stress of a person with dementia, it’s an excellent mental exercise to keep the mind active.” – Laura Bowley, The Benefits of Journaling for Caregivers and People with Dementia, Mindset Centre for Living with Dementia; Twitter: @mindsetdementia

Why?

Our aim is to create something that focuses not on the dementia, but the person and those around them. We want to capture everything that is positive, for example friendships and achievements alongside thoughts, feelings and concerns.

Our shared ambition is to take this far beyond a measurement tool. We’re driven most by the potential for our combined knowledge and technologies to significantly and measurably improve lives.

We’re now looking for 50 people to help us test and inform future direction – and we’d love to PICK you!

PICK

Who?

We are looking for anyone who is registered with a Clinical Commissioning Group within Greater Manchester who have a dementia diagnosis, their family and their carers.

We also want to speak to anyone who is interested in volunteering their time to support the engagement of the Greater Moments platform.

When?

We are now at the exciting development stage of the digital platform build and expect to launch Greater Moments to the first 50 users by the end of March 2020.

In the lead up to the launch, we will be running several training sessions providing users and volunteers information and practical guidance on how to use the platform.

Are you interested in becoming one of our first 50 users?

For more information visit:
www.greatermoments.co.uk

or

Contact Ross McCooey on:
ross@socialsense.co.uk

 

partners

Featured

Unwrapping the present

At Christmas time, sometimes we may forget, as cliché as it sounds, the true meaning of Christmas. Here at Social Sense we’re focusing on “unwrapping the present” by putting aside the materialistic items, the food and the drinks.

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There are many different ways to feel “present” around Christmas, and this can vary depending on the individual. Here are some ideas to help you take time to appreciate and be present in the moment:

Being Grateful

Sometimes it can be all too easy to forget to be grateful for the people around us, the love, the peace and blessings we receive throughout the year. It is important to show our gratitude, for ourselves and others.

“Thank you is the key that opens the door to instant happiness.”

Focusing on the 4 A’s of Gratitude:

  1. Appreciation– Being appreciative of the gifts we give and receive, and for all that we are blessed with around Christmas.
  2. Approval– Give praise and approval for every occasion and for every accomplishment – no matter the size. This could be a family member who has cooked Christmas dinner, or to a loved one for doing an amazing job despite the busy and stressful time of Christmas. Remember, whatever you praise gets repeated.
  3. Admiration– Compliment people on their accomplishments in work and private life. Make someone feel happier and good this Christmas.
  4. Attention– Listen patiently, thoughtfully and without interrupting. True listeners hear what’s being said to them. By expressing your gratitude to others in this way you increase your own happiness.

“The most selfish thing you can do in this world is help someone else, why? Because of the feeling it can give you.”

Practice Meditation

During meditation, brain scans see increased activity in regions directly correlated with decreased anxiety and depression. Meditation has been found to improve memory, self-awareness and goal setting. Setting goals is important as it can help trigger new behaviours, help guide your focus and helps you sustain that momentum in life. Setting a goal like being “present” can instantly have an impact this Christmas.

Meditation can reduce stress through the controlling of your breathing whilst also controlling the variability of your heart-rate. A great free meditation can be found online at: (http://www.mindful-me.co.uk/learners/)

Find Balance

It is important over Christmas that you find balance when visiting friends and family, whilst ensuring that you do not overwhelm yourself with trying to fit everything in. Ensure you to take time for yourself allowing for a break to recharge in time for the new year.

It can also be hard being around family, as we might prefer to have our own space. Find a way of getting that space, even by doing simple things such as going on a walk, going to the gym or going to a café by yourself.

Whilst there are many positives to social media, it also comes with a lot of negatives such as social isolation and sleep deprivation. Make sure you find a balance between spending time on technology and social media, with actually being present in the real world.

Happy holidays and enjoy unwrapping your present!

by Charlotte Yiatrou

Digital Marketing Apprentice

Featured

Social Sense appoints new Director of Operations

Social Sense has completed a trio of appointments in just 5 weeks, in preparation for a planned period of growth in early 2020.

Stacey Adams joins as Director of Operations, having previously occupied roles as Deputy Chief Executive for a large charity and several key management positions in the NHS.

gary and stacey

Her move follows those of Nadia Miller, a Breathworks qualified Mindfulness Trainer and Charlotte Yiatrou who joins as Digital Marketing Apprentice alongside weekly mentorship from Manchester based Social Chain.

The appointments represent the next exciting phase of growth for the Media City based Social Marketing agency, whose programmes have directly engaged over 200,000 people in the UK and in Europe since opening in February 2011.

Established In house programmes include those to reduce smoking, alcohol, knife crime and domestic abuse. In 2014 it established a programme to deliver Mindfulness at scale, which has now reached over 20,000 young people and adults.

This year the organisation also began the new co-creation of a platform to measure and improve lives for people with dementia, which is due to launch in April 2020 across Greater Manchester.

In addition to growing these programmes, the company has ambitions to scale its licensing, training and consultancy arm which enables more public sector and voluntary organisations to unlock their potential in delivering measurable social value.

Managing Director Gary Lovatt explains:

“Having been established for almost 9 years now we now have many programmes that are in great shape to be replicated at scale and have already had some success with this through R U Different? and Mindful Me.

Stacey is incredibly passionate about helping people to help themselves and has a wonderful track record of delivering value to workforces and communities across the North West.

Operationally this will enable us to move to another level – preparing us for the licensed growth of existing programmes, creation of new ones and further consultancy projects.”

One of Stacey’s early tasks will be to conduct a full strategic review of the organisation, ranging from policy, business development, communications and legal. Her early impressions are very positive:

“I have been an avid admirer of Social Sense’s work for some time and always shared its passion for delivering great outcomes at an early intervention and prevention level.

Having explored its programmes, evaluations and plans for the next few years I feel really excited about supporting the organisation to reach its next phase of growth”.

For more information about Social Sense Ltd visit www.socialsense.co.uk

For more information Social Sense Community and its school and community projects visit www.socialsensecic.co.uk

Featured

“What’s the best and worst decision you have made in business?”

Our MD Gary Lovatt was asked that recently by Bob Buckley, who chose Gary alongside 11 other guests for his first Twelve Scholars Podcast series.

They also discussed some of the factors behind decision making for young people and how Social Norms and Mindfulness can each play a role in changing lives and creating healthier society.

https://twelvescholars.com/blog/2019/10/9/mindfulness-in-motion

We hope you like it and will share your thoughts, plus your best and worst decisions too.😊

Introducing Nadia Miller

Due the continued growth and success of our Mindful Me programme, Social Sense is excited to welcomed Nadia Miller to its ever-growing team. Nadia will lead the training and development of our Mindfulness courses in schools and workplaces across the North West.

We sat down with Nadia to find out more about her.

Welcome to the team Nadia! Can you share with people how you got into teaching Mindfulness?

Following a lot of trauma and tragedy in childhood, I was diagnosed with depression and traits of an emotional unstable personality disorder. After 20 years of different types of therapies, I had Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT) which touched upon Mindfulness and helped me get to recovery. For me this means learning to manage my mental health condition.

This led me to the Manchester Buddhist Centre where I started to practice Buddhism and it is here, I saw a poster to train as a Mindfulness Teacher with Breathworks, a globally recognised Mindfulness provider. I took an interest in this straight away, as the Breathworks training is built upon compassionate foundations and shines through all the training they deliver. As I embarked on the teacher training, I got a real direct felt experience of the impact of this, and it would later prove invaluable to my mental health recovery journey.

Where are you in your training

I am accredited to deliver Breathworks 8-week Mindfulness for Health and Stress courses or what would be the Level 2 equivalent for Social Sense (Level 1 is awareness).

How has mindfulness has helped you?

Prevention

I have become more mindful through meditating and practising mindfulness each day e.g. slowing down, paying attention to the present moment (slowly making a cup of tea, noticing clouds passing, feeling my feet on the floor) and this has helped me notice my triggers earlier due to the awareness developed from this. The result is that I no longer self-harm and I am able to work with intense emotions when I experience episodes which are now very rare. For me being able to take preventative action is key.

Neuroscience

Mindfulness gives us choice between our thoughts and is scientifically proven to create new neuro pathways and help rewire the brain.

Acceptance

Another impact aspect that mindfulness has supported me tremendously with, is learning to accept how I feel, being able to sit with this in a non-judgemental, compassionate manner.

The result of this has meant that I am able to keep growing, becoming in life. I am not paralysed by habitual ways of thinking, restricting me from showing up for myself and the world.

How do you feel about joining Social Sense?

I am really excited to be joining the Social Sense team. This is a great opportunity for me in terms of supporting individuals to create awareness of mindfulness through direct felt experience with a view to providing the coping mechanisms that mindfulness can bring.

I am inspired by the way Social Sense are trying to share Mindfulness with more people at a whole population (and preventative) level but I believe I also bring, through my own lived experience, an ability to connect with people who are currently struggling with their mental health.

Nadia profile ppic

For more information visit:

http://www.mindful-me.co.uk/

www.socialsense.co.uk

https://www.breathworks-mindfulness.org.uk/

How Adopting a ‘Measure with Intent’ Mindset can deliver Social Change

At Social Sense, our greatest ability is delivering and demonstrating social impacts at scale.

Over the last 10 years we’ve achieved great results in the areas of smoking, alcohol, drugs, knife crime, domestic abuse and mental health and now we’re applying our learning in new areas such as helping people to live well with dementia.

Continue reading “How Adopting a ‘Measure with Intent’ Mindset can deliver Social Change”

Social Sense Ltd chosen to build Dementia Lived Experience Platform

Social Sense Ltd, in partnership with Wirral based Hitch Marketing, has been chosen to build a ground-breaking platform to measure the real time ‘Lived Experience’ of people with dementia.

The platform will be used to record information about a wide range of factors that affect quality of life for people who are living with dementia.

Continue reading “Social Sense Ltd chosen to build Dementia Lived Experience Platform”

Mindful Me successfully concludes a project in Kent

Social Sense recently concluded a successful 12 months project with local secondary schools and youth groups in Kent, addressing emotional health and wellbeing needs.

Kent Police and Crime Commissioner provided funding to commission Social Sense’s Mindful Me Programme across 3 organisations with pupils and young people from 12 schools/colleges.

Continue reading “Mindful Me successfully concludes a project in Kent”

7 Ways to Make Mental Health initiatives work in schools!

Today marks the start of Children’s Mental Health Week and the launch of a number of new trials in schools each aiming to improve the emotional wellbeing of our children.
On the surface of it, this feels like really good news and a welcome boost within an area that has become a growing concern for parents and professionals alike over the past few years.
With so many schools and teachers already stretched beyond their current means however – added to a plethora of providers out there who are already offering solutions around similar themes – how we do really know if we’re solving or problem or simply creating a bigger pile of initiatives for schools, teachers and young people to drown under?

Continue reading “7 Ways to Make Mental Health initiatives work in schools!”

Key Fund backs Social Sense CIC with £90,000 Investment!

Salford Quays based Social Sense CIC has secured £90,000 from the Key Fund to help scale its impressive social impacts in the areas of Mental Health, Domestic Abuse, Knife Crime plus adolescent Risk Behaviours including Alcohol and Substance misuse.

The Sheffield based Social Investor has committed to Investing from its Northern Impact Fund.  A mixture of grant and loan finance has been received via Access – the Foundation for Social Investment, with funding from the Big Lottery Fund and Big Society Capital.

Social Sense CIC was born out of the Ltd company using surpluses, pro-bono support and various new commissions to help it achieve a successful first year of trading.

Continue reading “Key Fund backs Social Sense CIC with £90,000 Investment!”