Here is what we are up to this week. We still have a few spaces for Chair Yoga on Tuesday if you’d like to join us – members loved last week’s session!
Weekly Activities
Tag Archives: Training
University of South Wales Roleplay
Amazing day at the University of South Wales on Friday! Caerphilly People First TRAC volunteers teamed up with third-year student nurses for a hands-on simulation session. Nat rocked her fake wound makeup, and Ffion’s acting as a patient with severe abdominal pain was spot on! The nurses handled the pressure like pros, showing just how valuable these real-life practice scenarios are. Huge thanks to everyone involved — what a fantastic learning experience!
Relationship Course
Last week Ffion Poole delivered the final part of her relationship course at Oxford House. The last session focused on human rights. We discussed the barriers people face when it comes to relationships, our right to have relationships, and we also talked about fairness, equality, and respect. Well done to everyone who attended the sessions. Your input and views were great to hear, and we’ve all learned something new over the past few weeks.
MIRROR Award Winner Ffion Poole
Congratulations to member and Executive Assistant Ffion Poole for winning the MIRROR Rights Award at last week’s All Wales People First AdFest conference, for running her relationship courses for adults with learning disabilities. During the past year Ffion has delivered her training to over 50 people, covering topics such as:
What makes a good friend and a bad friend. How to make friends and avoid arguments.
What makes a good boyfriend/girlfriend, and how you might begin a relationship.
Understanding your body.
‘My body, my choice’.
Sex education.
LGBTQIA+.
The rights you should have in a relationship.
Some of the feedback she has received as a result of these sessions include:
‘I’ve learned how to go about making friends, and now I know the signs of a bad friendship’.
‘I know about safe sex now, and I also understand my body more’.
‘I have learned what makes a good friend and I will try to be a better friend in the future’.
Ffion has done an amazing job informing people of their rights, and her work has been really important and helpful to people with learning disabilities.
University of South Wales Roleplay
Last week, our volunteers/TRAC members, Ffion Poole, Gethin Chamberlain, and Natalie King, worked at the University of South Wales. They role-played patients who had been admitted to the hospital with various health conditions in order to help the third-year student nurses with their training. Well done to all the students; you will all make fantastic nurses. It was great to see the knowledge you have about learning disabilities and the adjustments that need to be made when someone is admitted to hospital.
Relationship Course in Aberystwyth
Last week Ffion, supported by Christy, travelled to Aberystwyth to deliver her relationship course to Mencap Ceredigion and Our Voice Our Choice. We kicked off by playing the Skittles game, which we use to get to know each other and make everyone feel comfortable. During the course, which Ffion provided for the two groups over two days, she covered friendships, how to make friends, how to deal with arguments, what makes a good boyfriend and girlfriend, online safety, then finished off with a game of relationship Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. Thank you to Anita and Carl for the lovely flowers and thank you card, and also for making friendship bracelets for the group.
The Our Voice Our Choice group said this about the training:
Excellent turn out and very informative about safety online when making friends, online dating, what is a good friend, what is a bad friend, how to make friends and so much more. A massive thank you to Ffion and Christy.
Relationship Course
Ffion was back delivering her relationship courses at Oxford house yesterday, and it was great to see everyone again after our Easter break. We spoke about the word ‘no’, and the different ways you can say no to someone. We also spoke about personal space. The next session will be on Monday 14th April from 10am-11am, when we will be talking about sex education, safe sex, and pornography. If anyone would like to join the session, or if you would like more information, please contact Ffion on 07488 350518.
Autism Reality Experience
Christy and Stuart recently took part in the Autism Reality Experience, a hands-on training experience that allows people to walk in the shoes of autistic people and understand the challenges that they face. The aim is to encourage greater empathy and understanding for what it might be like for autistic people.
During the experience, we were asked to put on glasses with blurry lenses, gloves, and headphones. Loud noises were played in the headphones, and bright lights were flashed in our eyes. While this was happening we were given instructions on tasks we needed to complete. We were given 60 seconds to count money, separate green tiddlywinks from the other colours, and find the 5 of Spades playing card. We failed at all of these tasks, which showed us how difficult simple tasks can be for autistic people.
The experience was designed by autistic people who agreed that it was as close as physically possible to what they themselves experience, and it was definitely an eye-opening experience for us, which definitely gave us a greater understanding of the experiences of autistic people.
University of South Wales Training Exercise
Last week our volunteers Natalie King and Amy Jones took part in a simulation exercise at the University of South Wales, the aim of which was to train midwifery students and learning disability student nurses.
Nat played the role of a pregnant female, who is visited in her flat by a midwife, and Amy played the role of a female who giving birth on a labour ward. Nat also played the role of a mother who has given birth to her child, is caring for her along with her partner Darren, and is visited by a midwife and a learning disability nurse
People with learning disabilities are increasingly likely to become parents, and are entitled to have access to the right support to do this. The students did an amazing job, and we hope that the knowledge they gained during the training exercise will improve the care and treatment people with learning disabilities receive in the future.
Counting Your Way to Health
Yesterday we started the ‘Counting Your Way to Good Health’ programme with the Skills for Life Multiply project. We talked about health, what might affect your health, and how to improve your health. The top three answers the group gave to the last question were diet, exercise, and environment. The group then took part in an icebreaker exercise where they went through the alphabet and listed something to do with health and wellbeing for every letter.
The group were given a fitness tracker each, which they will use to track how many steps they take, with the aim being to reach 10,000 steps per day.
The World Health Organisation says that health is a state of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing, and the enjoyment of the highest standard of health is one of the fundamental rights of every human being.
