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Skills Festival Gives Teens Insight Into Elderly Care

FestTEENAGERS got a taste of what life is like with dementia and age-related eye disorders at a skills festival in Derbyshire.

A stand run by the Hill Care Group, which operates 38 care homes across the north of England, gave the students the chance to try on glasses that give the perception of different eye conditions.

This prompted conversations about living with dementia or caring for those with the condition as well as having a visual disturbance.

Lynda Hodgkinson, strategic development manager at Hill Care, and Karen Busby, home manager at Springbank House Care Home, manned the stand at the Derbyshire Skills Festival, in Chesterfield.

Lynda said: “Some people shared their own experiences of their family members with dementia, who they were or had cared for, and we had a number of questions.

“One lady said if only she had known more she might have understood her mother better.”

The free event, organised in partnership with Derby City Council, is aimed at students aged 13 to 19 to give them advice from professionals before leaving school or college.

Lynda added: “The young people were particularly interested in knowing more about apprenticeships and the training that we could offer them.

“One parent was keen to know if there were opportunities for more mature people to do apprenticeships in health and social care as well.

“I was surprised how confident some of these young people were and several seemed to be certain of their career pathway.

“One young girl was keen to do counselling. We talked about gaining experience working with people and she said she wasn’t particularly confident.

“I asked her if she had thought about doing the Duke of Edinburgh scheme or National Citizenship Service. She didn’t know about the NCS initiative and was really interested to hear about that.

“A number of people expressed an interest in visiting one of our homes.”

 

 
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