World Alzheimer's Month: Why I love being Toots Elderflower

September is World Alzheimer's Month and during the month we would like to share and celebrate the work of our Elderflowers and the wonderful effect their visits have for people living with dementia, their families and the staff who care for them.

Fiona Ferrier has been a member of the Hearts & Minds artistic team for a number of years and has recently become Joint Artistic Lead at Hearts & Minds. She is also a Clowndoctor (Dr Spritely) as well as an Elderflower. Here she tells us what she loves most about being an Elderflower and the practise and techniques that help bring moments of joy to the ladies and gentlemen.

Hi, I’m Fiona. I am Toots Elderflower with Hearts & Minds. As an Elderflower we visit wards for people living with dementia, and use therapeutic clowning to co

The thing that I love the most about being an Elderflower and a therapeutic clown is being in the present moment with everyone we visit. There is no before or after, there is only right now, being together and going on a journey. nOur costumes are a little larger than life, so we can pull some people into the present moment as they observe us. I then like to play some music, for relaxation and to perhaps trigger memories – who can resist singing along to Que Sera Sera or Donald, Where’s Yer Troosers – and then we introduce ourselves and dish out the compliments. No one is expected to know who we are or remember us from another time, the moment only belongs to the present.

Next, there’s often a problem – perhaps Bonnie’s hem is a little low, Toots falls over the couch, Petal can’t decide which hat to wear, Spud needs help with his joke telling, Blossom can’t find her favourite recipes or Buddy can’t fold away the maps. We need help, and we often receive that help. n nOnce, as Toots, and with Lily, we visited a dementia ward where three ladies were gathered. One of the ladies wasn’t feeling the best, so the visit was to be gentle with a slow approach. Lily and Toots slid quietly into the room and began to play with their hats. Lily’s hat became a cat, and slowly began meowing in the room. The ladies were intrigued and stroked the ‘cat’ to make it meow. The hat play built up into creating our own song about hats, to wearing hats, to needing good posture to wear a hat well, and one of the ladies teaching Toots and Lily to walk with a book on their head to improve their posture. And, of course, Lily and Toots failed at keeping the book on their head, with much slapstick and laughter as the book fell off, or Toots and Lily would crash into things. By the end all three ladies were laughing, offering advice, and demonstrating good posture.

ing, taking on board the atmosphere and mood of the room, before lifting it and then taking the participants of our clowning visit on a journey to a place in the present moment where we are all together and laughing is what I love about being an Elderflower.

“These are my friends. She was here, then that one came, and we laughed and laughed and laughed”. nOne of the ladies explaining to the staff what had just happened.

Can you help?nIf you would like to make a donation to help our Elderflowers visit more ladies and gentlemen who are living with dementia please CLICK HERE and thank you for helping us make a difference.n