January Sale Social Care Resource

Our final resource in our January Sale, the Social Care Resource, in its original form was one of our first.  It will be reduced by 30% for the whole of January 2025!

“ it’s an amazing thing; that something so simple could be so useful to people”

James, Talking Mats user

This resource can help build an understanding of who someone is and what is important to them.

It has 3 topics:

You – how is your general health, emotional well being, appetite going at the moment?                        

Activities – what interests do you have?

Where you live – what works well in your home / where you live and what doesn’t?

Margo MacKay, now our Managing Director, tells a story of her early days using the Social Care Resource in a care home for people with dementia:

When I went back to the Care Home where I was piloting our new Social Care symbols the staff told me this story about  Ann.  Apparently she usually is very quiet and never joins in with activities or with other residents. However when we used Talking Mats with the Activities symbols, she told me that she really likes singing and had started singing to me. Later that day, one of the care staff had suggested that she sing again and Ann started a song with him. Gradually other residents joined in and they had a lovely sing-song with Ann leading it!

Joan Murphy, Founder of Talking Mats, recently published a report; Reducing the Burden of Dementia by Using the Talking Mats Framework to Help People with Dementia and their Carers Communicate More Effectively. ¹   One study described in the report looked at the use of Talking Mats to support people with dementia and their carers to make decisions together.  Here are some quotes from people with dementia in the study:

I found it (Talking Mats) a big help, sometimes I get the words muddled and can’t get out what I am trying to say.

The mat shows that I am able to do much more than I thought.  I didn’t realise how much she is doing in the house.

Read the full report here.

The Social Care resource is available to anyone already trained in Talking Mats and between the 1st and 31st of January it will be reduced by 30%.

If becoming trained in Talking Mats is something you’d like to achieve in 2025 find out more here.

References

1. Reducing the Burden of Dementia by Using the Talking Mats Framework to Help People with Dementia and their Carers Communicate More Effectively.European Society of Medicine Medical Research Archives, [S.l.]. Vol 12 No 9.

Available at: https://esmed.org/MRA/mra/article/view/5716