We are very grateful to Rhona Matthews for sending us this moving blog.

‘‘I met with Katie, the worker at Perth Young Carers who did the Talking Mats training and she told me this story:

It is recognised that there are many positive outcomes from being a carer.
For some young people helping care for a sibling can bring confidence, develop feelings of closeness to family and increase self esteem. However it can also add stresses and strains. Expressing frustrations or anger can be difficult and feel like a betrayal.
Using Talking Mats can make it easier to say the things that might cause upset. Using the Children and Young Person’s resource, a young person disclosed to a worker that the one aspect she was not happy about when helping look after her brother, was administering medication. She had seen this being done in hospital by injection and did not like the thought of having to do it. She was happy with all other aspects of helping with his care. The worker fed this back to her parents and they all agreed not to expect her to do this.
The worker felt that this issue would not have been highlighted without the Talking Mats.”

It’s that time again when we have to write our Annual Report. This year we decided to make it (hopefully) more interesting and informative to read and (definitely) more enjoyable to write.  So we have done it in the form of mind maps.
The first is a summary of all that we have achieved in the past year. We have broken it down into the various strands of our Social Enterprise business. Click on the mind map to be able to read it!

The second is an attempt to measure the social impact that Talking Mats has – never an easy thing to quantify.We have based it on Health and Social Care Outcomes used by the Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland 2013. Click on mind map.

We were delighted to receive this comment – “You can tell they are communication professionals. No waffle – really clear and just what you want to know. The best example of an annual report I have ever seen!”

Please let us know if you have any innovative ways of presenting reports

Thanks to Andrea  McQueen from Australia for this lovely blog describing the Good Things Project which shows how good communication is central to active participation for people with intellectual disabilities

Across the world, many thousands of people with intellectual disabilities live in group homes. These are houses in the community shared by about four to six people with disabilities. Many of these people have communication difficulties of various sorts.
Communication is essential to many activities both within the home (e.g. making a shopping list, choosing what to watch on TV, letting your house mates know when you need some space) and beyond (e.g. developing and maintaining friendships; participation in education, employment and leisure). For many group home residents, participation in these activities relies on access to appropriate augmentative communication systems, and to trained staff who can support their use.
In twenty years working as a speech pathologist in Australia I have been in and out of a lot of group homes. Some do things better than others. Some value communication more than others. Some group home staff routinely use augmentative communication systems, such as Talking Mats, Key Word Sign and pictorial timetables. Unfortunately many do not. Each time I leave a group home, I ask myself the same question: “Could I live here?”
When I first came across the Roydon Street group home here in Melbourne I was impressed. This is a house where communication is respected, where people are listened to, and where genuine choices are offered. It’s not perfect, but it passes my simple test – it is a place where I could imagine living a good life.
I wanted to share the philosophies and practices of Roydon Street around the world. I hoped to influence other group homes to adopt the same simple strategies for their residents. So I sought funding and made a video – Good Things.
The Good Things video aims to show how simple communication strategies can contribute to a good quality of life for people with intellectual disabilities in group homes. It demonstrates how a culture of respect and autonomy can develop when staff understand how to listen to clients and support their communication methods. It shows what is possible in a sector that gets a lot of negative publicity.
Good Things was funded by the Victorian Department of Human Services, and the closed captions on the video were funded by the City of Bayside. The video is the result of a partnership of many agencies and individuals. Special thanks to the residents and staff at Roydon Street. Good Things was released on YouTube in March 2014, and to date has had more than 800 views in 17 countries (not quite keeping pace with Lady Gaga!). It’s a small project, but I hope it has made a difference. I know the team at Talking Mats shares the passion for improving the lives of people wherever they live, and I would love to hear from others with an interest in this area.
Click here to see the Good Things video
Andrea McQueen
Inner South Communication Service
Email: amcqueen@cbchs.org.au
Twitter: @aj_mcq

We are looking for another Associate to work with the Talking Mats team in Stirling (3 days per week). Talking Mats Ltd is a Social Enterprise which is expanding and developing into new areas and topics.  The job will contribute to training, to the ongoing development of resources and to research and consultancy. We are looking for someone with real enthusiasm and experience of using Talking Mats who will bring good networking skills and creative ideas to develop Talking Mats in other sectors.

Please click here for the detailed job specification  TM associate

If you are interested in joining a dynamic, creative and well respected team please send your CV and cover letter to: info@talkingmats.com.

The closing date for applications is Wednesday 3rd September and the interviews will be held on Friday 12th September

We are delighted with the response to our new Talking Mats symbols. They created a real buzz at the ISAAC (International Society  of Augmentative and Alternative Communication) Conference in Lisbon last week.” Its so good to see something fresh and engaging” , “These are awesome”

Over the past few years we have been looking at symbols in a new way and have used our specialist skills from clinical practice, research and language structure to underpin their development. These skills, in partnership with a leading comic artist, www.adammurphy.com , have enabled us to design our symbols, making sure that they are:

• Unique
• Attractive and fun
• Simple but represent concepts clearly
• Distinguish between concrete and abstract concepts
• Show full body, not stick figures
• Acceptable in terms of  age and ethnicity
• Balanced between male and female
• Provide additional visual clues within topics to support understanding

Talking Mats does not require people to select and ‘name’ symbols – the important feature is that the symbols act as a support to hang meaning on. In this way people can understand and use the symbols to express their views .

To determine the size and colour of the symbols, we have used a pragmatic approach as follows:

A search of the literature showed that very little empirical research has been written about optimal symbol size and colour for different client groups. However several leading graphic and cartoon designers use yellow as this is easily recognisable, attractive and ethnically neutral e.g. Simpsons, Lego

• Our artist advised us that cool colours such as blue recede into the background visually whereas warm colours such as yellow stand out more
• We believe it is important to include text as this provides additional input for many people e.g. many people with dementia can read.
• From discussion with colleagues and reading learning disability literature we decided that  Arial, san serif point 14 would be the clearest font
• We experimented with various sizes, using very large symbols on one dementia project. However we found that very large symbols are too distracting and limit the number of symbols that can be used on a mat. Following piloting with older people in care homes we determined that the optimal size for using with Talking Mats is 5.5 square cm.
• We ran focus group discussions with speech and language therapists, people with learning disability, people with aphasia and people with dementia. The focus groups presented participants with symbols of different styles, size and colours. The resulting responses plus our literature search led us to the current symbols in terms of design, size and colour.
• We then piloted the symbols in several settings including a day centre with adults with complex physical and cognitive disabilities, a care home with people with dementia and a secondary school with children with additional support needs. In all of these setting almost all participants were able to see, recognise and use the symbols appropriately.
• We made a conscious decision not use photos because photos often have too much detail on the one hand or conversely can be too specific… but that’s a topic for another blog!

We are constantly extending the range of symbols and are currently working on a resource for helping people to consider their Eating and Drinking.  We are also working on providing additional visual clues within topics to help people understand concept more easily e.g. emotions are represented within a cloud border. e.g this poor guy is feeling guilty

We are really excited that our new symbols are now being used by 2 organisations outside the field of disability to help students and graduates reflect on their skills,strengths and weaknesses.

 For further information click here

Angela is a speech and language therapist in Northern Ireland where she works with people with learning disabilities. She worked with John who had some difficulties with eating and drinking. Together they used Talking Mats to help John understand his risk of choking and identify foods which were easy or difficult to eat. Watch this film clip where John describes how Talking Mats helped him to understand and manage his risk of choking.

John’s DVD

My name is Karin Torgny, I’m from Sweden. My background is in journalism and culture studies. I used to work in “The Development Centre for Double Exposure” for many years, and our mission was to improve and spread knowledge about violence against women with disabilities. My special interest during these years was AAC. Today I work for Unicef and in different projects on human rights issues.

A year ago I did my accredited Talking Mats training in Stirling, Scotland. Since then I have given my first course in using Talking Mats when talking about abuse and harm. It was a great experience and an opportunity to work with an enthusiastic group of women who were open and willing to communicate using symbols. They are all in an organisation working with girls/women with intellectual disability exposed to violence and oppression in the name of honour.

I think Talking Mats is a good tool when approaching difficult subjects and I hope to run more courses like this in Sweden in the future. Lately I was interviewed on the Swedish Radio and talked about the use and possibilities with Talking Mats when someone is exposed to harm and abuse.

For those who know Swedish (!), here is a link to that program, http://t.sr.se/1mxZv9W

I am also curious if someone else is doing something similar. If so I would be interested to know more. Send an e-mail to: karin.torgny@gmail.com

Have a look at how Talking Mats has been used in Scotland to support people with a learning disability to disclose issues of concern: Survivor Scotland

I recently fell down the stairs and injured my ankle a few days before I left to visit relatives in Canada. I then had the frustrating experience of having to use a wheelchair to get through 5 airports in one day on my own. It made me realise how it all depends on communication and how reliant I was on the communication skills of the people pushing the wheelchair and how helpless I was when communication went wrong.

I had gone on-line before leaving to pre-book a wheelchair but this was confusing as each airport and airline had different rules.

It started in Edinburgh where I was directed to a calm and very competent young man who told me exactly what was happening, where he was taking me, checking if I wanted to use the ladies room or buy a coffee, helping me get through security and then to the door of the plane where I managed to hop to my seat. ‘Great’ I thought -‘This is going to be a doddle!’

Same thing happened at Heathrow with a lovely woman who chatted all the way – checked if I needed anything and told me that she had been doing this job for several years after her mother had died and absolutely loved helping people. However …. at Boston where I had to go through customs, collect my luggage and recheck in and go through security… That’s when it all went wrong.

The man who came to ‘help’ was a man of few words and despite telling him repeatedly when my next flight was due and that I didn’t have much time, he seemed totally unconcerned. He dumped my case across my knees ( heedless of my injury); he took me to the wrong terminal building despite me asking if we were we going to the Air Canada terminal; he never looked at me or asked if I was OK; he walked incredibly slowly paying no heed to me showing him the time on my boarding pass and the final straw was when he stopped at the corner of one building and said he could go no further as he only worked for transatlantic flights! He then made me get out of the wheelchair and left me to hobble to the Air Canada desk with both my check-in baggage and my hand luggage. By the time I got to the check-in desk the flight had closed and I was told I was too late and I would need to get another flight the day after!

Fortunately the Air Canada staff could see that I was struggling and persuaded the baggage handlers to accept my case as I was ‘disabled’ and I was allowed on the flight….just!

The staff at Toronto and Winnipeg airports were much more helpful but for me it was a real insight into how dependent someone in a wheelchair is and how things can either be made pleasant and smooth or can go horribly …wrong depending on people’s communication.

To mark Dementia Awareness week the Talking Mats team is keen to provide family training for relatives who care for someone with a communication difficulty.

Thanks to a generous donation from Miss Hendry Charitable Trust and support from Alzheimer Scotland, training has been carried out with family members at the Clydebank Alzheimer Scotland Resource Centre. Eight people who care for a relative with dementia (6 caring for a spouse and 2 caring for a parent) and one member of staff attended. None of the participants knew about Talking Mats before the training. They all cared for people who had difficulty expressing themselves and several told the group about the frustrations and despair they sometimes felt.

The training was carried out over 2 sessions.
Session 1 included an explanation to the background and purpose of Talking Mats, a demonstration, watching and discussing DVD examples, hands on practice, discussion of topics to be used at home with their relative and planning for next session.
Each participant was given a set of materials and by the end of the day all participants had understood the principles involved in Talking Mats and had gained the skills required to use it with their relative. They all said how much they had enjoyed the day and how much they had gained from it. They all committed to trying it with their relative and to bringing back their views to the follow up session. Each participant was given a post-it note at the end of the day and was asked to write any comments- positive or negative about the day.

Some of the comments:
• This was a very positive course today. It has made me feel very hopeful about establishing a time of coherent dialogue with my mother – albeit in a focused way and also in providing a tool for her to communicate in a simple way, her own thoughts, Thank you.
• Informative, informal, surprising. I enjoyed the course and felt I had gained from it.
• Could be a useful tool. Can’t wait to try it with my wife. Thank you.
• The course was very informative and well worth the time spent. Talking Mats is a very simple idea which seems to be working very well. I’m looking forward to trying it out and hearing how the others coped and what the outcomes will be.
• This was a very informative day and hopefully gives us a great way of communicating to find out my husband’s views on subjects.

The participants were assured that they could get ongoing support by phone or email and the staff member at the resource offered to provide local support.

Six participants plus two staff came to the second session. The others were unable to attend due to their relative being unwell. We had lively and helpful discussions where each person shared their own personal stories of how they had used Talking Mats and what it meant for them.
Overall they felt that Talking Mats was a powerful and helpful tool and that it gave them quality time together with their relative with dementia. The following comments illustrate this:
– small changes made a big difference
– It gives me time to sit down and listen to him
– It slows you down which is needed with someone with dementia
– It helps me know where he is at the moment
– It showed my husband the things he CAN do rather than what he CAN’T do

Relatives found out some things about their partner that they didn’t know e.g. one person with dementia had revealed that they didn’t like having the radio on all the time; another had toothache which the partner was unaware of; another said that food had become tasteless and he no longer enjoyed mealtimes as a result. The relatives were all able to do something as a result to help the situations – e.g. reduce the background noise of the radio, make a dental appointment, add more spice to their cooking.
One couple now use Talking Mats every few days on a regular basis to help the person with dementia think about issues and compare his mood from week to week
– He always feels up after he’s done a Talking Mat
This couple had also given a demonstration of using Talking Mats to a family meeting at the resource centre

Overall the participants found Talking Mats very helpful although two felt it had not been successful. We discussed the reasons for this and the group were very supportive and suggested that the staff could help by introducing Talking Mats as a group activity at the resource centre where these two people could be included. The staff at the centre were also very positive and plan to use Talking Mats both with individual people and with groups.

Overall it was agreed that Talking Mats is a very useful tool both for individual families and for dementia centres. We discussed future plans for individuals and also for the centre. This included designing a Talking Mat to discuss football and another to allow the people with dementia who attend the centre to be involved in planning the centre’s new allotment.
We plan to continue our involvement with the Clydebank Resource Centre and are now in the middle of running the same course in other Dementia Resource Centres.

Anyone wishing further information about Talking Mats training for family members, please contact us at info@talkingmats.com

Talking Mats has adopted day 69 of the justice for LB Campaign. This campaign was started was after Connor Sparrowhawk drowned in the bath whilst staying in  an assessment treatment unit .  In the words of his mum Connor was ‘a beautiful, hilarious and loved beyond words dude’.  So, after decades of trying to improve services for people with learning disability, closing the long stay hospitals, bringing in person centred approaches, we are left in 2014 with huge inequalities in the health and life opportunities  for people with learning disability and life’s like Connor are cut short in such a shocking, unnecessary and untimely manner.

How many more tragic deaths are we going to see before residential services for people with learning disability are going to change?  We need to see at the heart of  service culture an ability to really listen , put the views of the patient at the heart of planning and see the families as key partners. Sometimes I think people see listening as a ‘soft issue’. Other things get measured but does the quality of listening ever get measured? It should because in my view it is a critical patient safety issue.

Over the last few years I have had the privileged of working with a diverse group of people with a range of communication support needs. They have developed an interactive workbook for NHS Education Scotland. They share their experiences of contact with services to help staff understand how to improve communication and listening skills. They created 10 vision statements for staff of the things that were key to them. They told powerful personal stories to illustrate those statements. The stories illustrate both good and bad practice. You can download the free resource at http://goo.gl/QdOOev .

Listening to people what strikes me time and time again is the lottery of service delivery. There are some great stories where people have received quality treatment and interaction but that is not universal for there are stories where you are left questioning the compassion and humanity of staff in so called ‘caring’ roles. The question for all of us is how we shift the culture so that we can all experience a person centred and listening health service. I hope the energy and impetus of #107 campaign ignites the flame of change so that ‘all dudes’ gets a safe and quality service. If you want to join the campaign then please follow @justiceforLB .