World Alzheimer Day – PSV Foundation launches new programme to help people with dementia

World Alzheimer Day – PSV Foundation launches new programme to help people with dementia

On Tuesday, September 21st it was World Alzheimer Day. Several clubs in the Netherlands embraced already the Football Memories project, initialised in the Netherlands bij Willem II. Dutch EFDN member the PSV Foundation started this month their ‘Tikkie Terug’ programme to help people with dementia.

Dementia is a growing social problem and by 2050 it will probably be the number one cause of death in the Netherlands’. Harm Oppers, programme leader at the PSV Foundation, shows with a powerful statement why the need to pay attention to dementia is great. This is one of the reasons why the PSV Foundation, in cooperation with Alzheimer Nederland, Vitalis WoonZorg Groep, TU Eindhoven and Fontys Hogescholen, has launched ‘Tikkie Terug’. A programme that aims to enable people with dementia to participate in society for as long as possible.

Main role
Where the Philips Stadium is normally manned by tense football fans, on the second Tuesday of September a group of people with dementia will take the leading role. PSV’s stadium welcomes ten participants, a number of volunteers and one care worker, who try to recall memories by means of photos, sound fragments and videos – mainly focused on football. Supervisor Oppers puts on the PSV club song and sees that everyone starts singing along enthusiastically. When the club song is finished, volunteer Annelies Hellings asks the group to join in with movement exercises, which are included in the programme ‘Tikkie Terug’ (Literally, ‘Little pass backwards’).

Training session
To be able to guide the participants adequately, she and a number of PSV Foundation volunteers have followed a training session before. “The training is part of the dementia-friendly stadium programme,” says Oppers. “We try to give tools on how to best deal with people with dementia. Eventually, we want all our employees to follow the training,” he says. Oppers and Ivonne Berkers and Petra Raijakkers agree that this is necessary. They supervised the training session ‘Samen Dementievriendelijk’ (Being Dementia Friendly Together), which was held before the first Tikkie Terug meeting.

During the session, participants received a lot of information on the different forms of dementia, such as Alzheimer’s disease. Cases were also discussed, such as how best to respond to someone suffering from dementia. Volunteer Loek Weimar has experience with this. With an example, he confirms that it is precisely this way of dealing with people that is sometimes so difficult. “I once bought her a product that was on sale. When she saw that it had a limited expiration date, she thought I was trying to poison her,” says Weimar. To get the volunteers thinking, Berkers took on the role of the family member during the training. “You are trying to poison me,” she says. “Yes, I have been trying to do that for twenty years”, jokes one participant. Berkers pretends to panic. “You see, you are trying to poison me.” “No way, just look at the date,” Hellings says. “You can still eat it”, she adds and Berkers calms down.

Programme day
The experience gained seems to have an effect on the official programme in the stadium. When Hellings’ movement exercises are finished, all the participants sit down without grumbling. Meanwhile, Hellings has placed a stack of photos of the Philips Stadium on the table. “Who has been here before?”, she asks. Participant Gerry raises her hand. “Don’t tell anyone, but I once took a blade of grass from the centre spot,” she says, laughing.

Impressive
That is the signal for the group to walk to the pitch. “It is really beautiful here,” says Gerry. “It is very special to be so close to the pitch,” adds one of the other participants. “I had a tour three years ago. That was a very nice day. Those memories are all coming back now.” That too is one of the aims of Tikkie Terug. Scientific research has shown that retrieving memories is good for the brains of people suffering from dementia. “There was a man at the first pilot meeting who was mainly sleeping,” says Harry Lubse, former footballer and ambassador of the PSV Foundation. He too is involved in the project. “The more often this man came, the longer he stayed awake. You could just see the progression. It really does something to bring back memories. A family member of a participant recently even said she was completely euphoric when she came back. It really adds something to their week,” says Lubse.

The former PSV player, meanwhile, poses for one last time for a group photo that was taken to conclude the first meeting. Back in the hall, Oppers turns on the music one more time. At the special request of participant Jan, it was the club song of amateur club Brabantia from Eindhoven. He knows the song by heart and sings along. “I think this is so beautiful to see. It really comes from his heart,” says Lubse. “I am glad that we have embraced this subject with the PSV Foundation.”