Supporting Families with Dementia
You buy stationery we buy dolls
IN MEMORY OF JAMILA
Helping families live with dementia
We’d like to introduce you to Jamila. In 2008, Jamila went into hospital for a routine operation. During surgery, something went badly wrong, and she had a stroke on the operating table. For a few minutes, her heart stopped beating. Although the doctors were able to save her life, the stroke left lasting damage, and she contracted vascular dementia overnight. She was left unable to help herself, to say nothing of her disabled husband for whom she was the primary carer.
Jamila was a vibrant, happy woman. She had a smile that would light up the room, and a kindness which exuded from every pore. Like many parents, she had cared for others most of her adult life. First, it was her nephews, then two sons, her daughter, grandchildren and her husband. She worried about them all – during the day, last thing at night and first thing in the morning. She always wondered how her babies were.
You never stop being a parent and you never stop worrying, and Jamila’s dementia turned a worry into mental torture. For many, that torture is relieved by medication, concoctions of pharmaceuticals that can leave people numbed and empty.
By giving our loved ones something to care for in a dementia doll, whether a baby, cat or dog, we can provide unmedicated comfort and a feeling of inner peace which helps them cope with their day. We make no excuses for this being personal for us. Jamila is Yasmin’s mother and the reason we do what we do. Next year, in 2022, we want to donate as many dementia dolls and pets and wellbeing packs to the 850,000 families living with dementia in the UK.
If you’d like to donate or know someone who will benefit from a doll or a pet, please click here to contact us.
Caring for our elder population
Dementia pets & dolls
A helpful, drug-free way to calm and soothe seniors with Alzheimer’s or dementia is to give them a soft, lifelike baby doll to cuddle. These therapy dolls can even be effective in calming older adults with significant behavioural challenges.
Our social impact always had two main strands – homelessness and dementia care. Before the pandemic, we were committed to providing these dolls. However, as 2020 unfolded, we became aware that there were other priorities.
From April to August, we sent out 6,071 PPE packs to care settings around the country. These were for care providers: care or nursing homes and hospices which would ordinarily procure through the NHS supply chain, but had that route closed to them as “non-essential”.
While this formed the bulk of our work during the spring/summer period, we found ways to supply 523 dementia dolls and animals (robotic cats and dogs). These were a lifeline to many who were cut off from their families. We have been told that our dolls were particularly helpful for those who had trouble engaging with others, or became especially confused in the absence of family members.
Get In Touch
Contact Details
If you are interested in finding out more about our pens and ordering them for your organisation please get in touch with your requirements.
