Online training login 
The role of Talking Mats in supporting people to make decisions in a capacity context.
Context
At the heart of the different capacity legislation that covers England, Wales, Ireland and Scotland is a requirement to ensure that all practicable steps are taken to support the communication of an individual. Talking Mats is well suited to do this as, it supports people to understand, process and weigh up information and then helps them express their views.
Talking Mats has a research base that provides evidence that using this visual framework improves the quality and quantity of information people can give. This has been shown for people with learning disability, dementia and aphasia.
Capacity; enabling supported decision-making.
The Resource.
This resource has been developed with several teams working in different parts of UK. Capacity is decision specific and must be tailored to fit the requirements of the decision. In developing this resource we have focused on the most common decisions people face; what you do in your free time, where you live, your safety, and your support plan. This resource will not cover all capacity decisions but will be a helpful starting point to support you and your clients.
Why use Talking Mats to support decision making ?
- Decisions are broken down into manageable chunks that reduce cognitive load
- The use of visuals reduces the pressure on spoken language and assists the expression of views.
- It allows people time to reflect on their decisions and change their min
- It demonstrates areas that require more information and knowledge to help make a decision
The Advanced Online Course
This course has been jointly developed by practitioners from social work, occupational therapy and speech and language therapy. Course attendees will;
- Think about and extend their practice within the provisions of the Capacity Act relevant to them
- Think about how decisions are made and what affects the way they are made
- Learn how to extend the resource to cover specific decisions that are not covered
- Explore and reflect on their own use of Talking Mats in this context
- Share their experience and learn from others
Learning will be through short talks, interactive activities, case examples and small group discussion. There will be a mid- session screen break.
To join this Advanced Online Course you need to;
- Have completed the Talking Mats Foundation Training
- Attend with a system that allows you to join in the Teams chat during the session and go into small breakout rooms
- Book onto our Advanced Course via the website shop before the 7th of April
The cost is £95 and this covers the resource and the online session. Places are limited to make sure to book on soon. Resources will be posted out the week before training. Bookings close on the 7th of April.
Not yet Foundation Trained?
Our final resource in our January Sale, the Social Care Resource, in its original form was one of our first. It will be reduced by 30% for the whole of January 2025!
“ it’s an amazing thing; that something so simple could be so useful to people”
James, Talking Mats user
This resource can help build an understanding of who someone is and what is important to them.
It has 3 topics:
You – how is your general health, emotional well being, appetite going at the moment?
Activities – what interests do you have?
Where you live – what works well in your home / where you live and what doesn’t?
Margo MacKay, now our Managing Director, tells a story of her early days using the Social Care Resource in a care home for people with dementia:
When I went back to the Care Home where I was piloting our new Social Care symbols the staff told me this story about Ann. Apparently she usually is very quiet and never joins in with activities or with other residents. However when we used Talking Mats with the Activities symbols, she told me that she really likes singing and had started singing to me. Later that day, one of the care staff had suggested that she sing again and Ann started a song with him. Gradually other residents joined in and they had a lovely sing-song with Ann leading it!
Joan Murphy, Founder of Talking Mats, recently published a report; Reducing the Burden of Dementia by Using the Talking Mats Framework to Help People with Dementia and their Carers Communicate More Effectively. 1 One study described in the report looked at the use of Talking Mats to support people with dementia and their carers to make decisions together. Here are some quotes from people with dementia in the study:
I found it (Talking Mats) a big help, sometimes I get the words muddled and can’t get out what I am trying to say.
The mat shows that I am able to do much more than I thought. I didn’t realise how much she is doing in the house.
The Social Care resource is available to anyone already trained in Talking Mats and between the 1st and 31st of January it will be reduced by 30%.
If becoming trained in Talking Mats is something you’d like to achieve in 2025 find out more here.
References
- Reducing the Burden of Dementia by Using the Talking Mats Framework to Help People with Dementia and their Carers Communicate More Effectively.European Society of Medicine Medical Research Archives, [S.l.]. Vol 12 No 9.
Available at: https://esmed.org/MRA/mra/article/view/5716
Talking Mats don’t do Pink Friday, Black Friday or Cyber Monday but we can tell you about our January Sale.
Starting on the 1st of January 2025 and running until the 31st of January 2025 we are offering;
- 30% discount on our Health and Well Being Bundle
- 30% discount on our Social Care Resource *
- 50% discount on our Eating and Drinking Resource *
*available if Foundation Trained
These are popular resources and over the next couple of weeks I will signpost you to some of our top blogs that showcase how they can be used.
This week:
Health and Well Being Resource Bundle
This comprehensive resource can support conversations around general health, a person’s environment, ability to look after themselves and their communication across different areas. Find out more about it’s development and use.
Read about the development and background to the resource and its use with Duncan who had had a stroke.
Kate was a woman with severe communication difficulties following a stroke. This blog describes how using the 4 communication topics Kate and her therapist were able to identify specific challenges that could be worked on to help her overcome her difficulties.
The Health and Well Being Resource complete with bag and mat will be reduced by 30% from the 1st of January and will be available to buy in the website shop from that date.
Talking Mats is now used in many countries all over the world. As part of our #TMis21 blog series, we wanted to share this great example of Talking Mats being used in Germany.
In March 2019 Prof. Dr. Norina Lauer (OTH Regensburg) and Elena Maxheimer held a lecture and a workshop about Talking Mats at the “aphasia days” in Wuerzburg, Germany. Many thanks to Norina and Elena for sharing information about the “aphasia days” for this blog post.
The “aphasia days” are a large congress – unique in Europe – for people with aphasia, family members and speech and language therapists (SLT). Every year around 600 people from Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Hungary are coming to this event. There are talks, workshops and podium discussions held by participants with aphasia, family members or SLTs. In front of approx. 150 listeners Norina and Elena gave a lecture about Talking Mats and the results of Elena’s bachelor thesis, in which she worked with people with aphasia, who learned to use Talking Mats.
In a three-hour workshop at the “aphasia-days” Norina and Elena taught nine people with moderate to severe aphasia how to use Talking Mats. All persons brought their own tablets and logged into their own account. They where shown how to choose a topic and a top scale and practiced in teams of two. All of them conducted several sessions with different topics and switched partners a couple of times. They had a lot of fun talking about things that matter to them and learn more about their peers. At the end of the workshop they were able to use Talking Mats themselves and are going to use it with their relatives and friends at home. As the workshop was very well received by the participants, it is likely to be repeated at the next “aphasia days” 2020.
If you would like to find out more information about Talking Mats in Germany, and the Digital Talking Mats app which is now available in German, check out https://www.talkingmats.com/talking-mats-in-germany/ and https://www.talkingmats.com/german-digital-talking-mats-with-people-with-aphasia/
Our Talking Mats is 21 Event is in Stirling on Thursday 15th August 2019. Thanks to funding from NHS Forth Valley endowment committee the event is free but you do need to book your space https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/talking-mats-is-21-tickets-62362171935
You can come to the morning only, afternoon only or come for the whole day.
If you can’t come to our event watch out for out blogs and social media celebrating the reach of Talking Mats for 21 days before the 15th of August. Please join in with your contributions using the hashtag #TMis21. For 21 days after our event we will be having a special Birthday offer! Watch this space, more to follow …….
Last week, Laura Holmes, our NW England Associate, had the pleasure of interviewing our inspirational Founder, Joan Murphy. Joan will be retiring after our Talking Mats 21 event on 15th August 2019 and so this was a great opportunity to find out more about her Talking Mats experiences:
Are there any stand-out moments for you, from your Talking Mats time?
Talking Mats are now used in many countries across the world and it has been great to have the chance to travel widely. One particular moment which stands out for me was during one of two trips I made to China with Sally Boa. I was asked to demonstrate Talking Mats with a man who was in hospital having had a stroke. He had no speech and was using a wheelchair. I used Talking Mats to find out what the man felt he could/ couldn’t do. The man shared that he felt he could walk. I had to present the symbol three times as the family members and medical staff watching were adamant that the man could not walk. On the third time, the man pushed the table, moved his wheelchair back then stood up and walked around the room. His family and medical team were completely shocked and realised that no-one had actually thought to ask him if he could walk. This was a massive turning point both for the man – and also for his family and medical team, who could now see the power of using a Talking Mat.
Have you done any Talking Mats yourself that helped you to make an important decision for you or your family?
Absolutely – quite a few! My husband and I both used Talking Mats for our Power of Attorneys and shared them with our lawyer and grown-up children. My husband and I also used Talking Mats to talk about the Scottish Referendum as we had opposing views – it really helped as it made us listen to each other without interrupting. We then went on to use the mats as part of a presentation. Various members of my family have used mats to explore personal issues and decisions
What are the top tips you have gained from your Talking Mats journey – from working in the NHS and then more recently as a social enterprise?
You have to have humour. And be able to listen. It has been essential to be able to work in partnership with Lois and the other Talking Mats team members. The team are such nice people to work with and we have lots of laughs. Setting up as social enterprise was vital for Talking Mats – in terms of having the freedom to be creative. It felt as though someone had a big rubber band which was able to be released. It was a huge risk and there have been lots of leaps of faith along the way.
Do you have any top tips for people using Talking Mats in the Listener role?
Be quiet – and Listen! It’s also important to feel relaxed and to have a sense of humour whilst using it. A Talking Mat is not a test – it is serious, and can be used to explore difficult issues, but it should be fun.
Talking Mats is a low-tech AAC system – do you think it has a place in the modern world?
It is absolutely crucial! Low-tech resources are fundamental in terms of being able to have and develop conversation skills and social closeness.
What do you want for Talking Mats in the next 10 years?
World Domination! Talking Mats has the potential to be used everywhere in the world, by everyone. However I would like to see Talking Mats continue to have a small core team, but increasing Licensed Trainers across both the UK and the rest of the world.
Our Talking Mats is 21 Event is in Stirling on Thursday 15th August 2019. Thanks to funding from NHS Forth Valley endowment committee the event is free but you do need to book your space https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/talking-mats-is-21-tickets-62362171935
You can come to the morning only, afternoon only or come for the whole day.
If you can’t come to our event watch out for out blogs and social media celebrating the reach of Talking Mats for 21 days before the 15th of August. Please join in with your contributions using the hashtag #TMis21. For 21 days after our event we will be having a special Birthday offer! Watch this space, more to follow …….
Grateful thanks to Prof. Dr. Norina Lauer, OTH Regensburg – University of Applied Sciences, Germany for this blog.
At the conference of the German Society for Aphasia Research and Treatment (GAB) from the 1st to the 3rd of November Franziska Rau presented a poster – Let pictures talk – about her bachelor thesis on Talking Mats.
Speech and language therapists from German-speaking countries meet at this conference to present their latest research findings. This year’s theme was ” Aphasia Therapy Digital”.
The presented bachelor thesis about Talking Mats was performed at the HAN University of Applied Sciences, Netherlands, and was written by Franziska Rau together with Karoline Bitter and Lara Stobrawe. The students asked 29 people with aphasia and 63 people without aphasia for how representative they rated the images and terms used in the Communication section of the Digital Talking Mats Health & Well-being resource. While the healthy persons judged many items as not clear enough, the people with aphasia estimated significantly more pictures and names as appropriate. For this purpose, various reasons have been discussed, such as the possibility that the persons with aphasia directly perceived the pictures and terms as aids, while healthy persons judged more critically on the basis of the task. But also problems of concentration or comprehension in people with aphasia would be causally conceivable. This should be examined in further studies.
The poster was presented as part of a poster session and was well received by the audience. Thanks to Franziska, Karoline and Lara for their great study and to Holger Grötzbach, Janine Coopmans and Xaver Koch who supported the students.
We are always happy to receive projects and posters from anyone studying how Talking Mats can be used
We are very grateful to Elena Maxheimer, a Speech and Language Therapy student from Germany, for sending us this blog of a summary of her thesis which examined the use of the German Digital Talking Mats with people with aphasia.
In May 2018 I did my bachelor thesis on the German version of the Talking Mats app. Under the consultation of Prof. Dr. Norina Lauer, I delivered two workshops for eight people with aphasia. In these workshops the participants practiced doing Talking Mats and afterwards they evaluated the app by filling out a short questionnaire and taking part in a focus group in which they discussed the app’s content and practical use.
The participants generally rated the app as useful for people with aphasia and in particular, the topics, pictures and terms were rated as suitable for people with aphasia. The two most chosen topics were Health and Communication. Some aspects were difficult for people with aphasia. Some of the group had problems in choosing a suitable scale, writing on an empty card or writing down comments.
Suggestions for modification were
– Showing two sessions of Talking Mats parallel to have a better comparison
– Using the app on the smartphone – however the screen on a smartphone is too small to be manageable
– Saving the login data, so you don’t have to login every time you use the app
– One older participant suggested additional topics about specific diseases such as diabetes
– Another younger participant wanted more about sex, feelings, sympathy and love.
For other information about Talking Mats in Germany click here
Also Joan Murphy and Norina Lauer will be running a Talking Mats workshop in Cologne on May 5th and 6th 2019
Self-management for people with long term conditions (LTC) is now a key government strategy to encourage people to take responsibility for their own health, behaviour and well-being. Talking Mats received funding from The Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland to look how using the Digital Talking Mats (DTM) can help people with LTCs to manage their health and well-being and to recognise their own strengths and abilities.
The overall aim of our project was to empower people with different long term conditions, to manage their own health and well-being. Through using Digital Talking Mats (DTM) we hoped that participants would be able to have more control over their lives and have improved communication with families and professionals.
There were a total of 28 participants in this project living with one of three different long term health conditions – stroke, dementia and learning disability. Each participant had access to a tablet device and was given a personal DTM licence which gave them access to 13 topics in the Talking Mats Health and Well-being resource. We visited each participant at home and taught them how to use it and asked them to complete and send us at least 1 digital mat per week for 6 weeks on any topic they wished. The design of the digital Talking Mat allowed them to email their mats directly to the researchers. We visited each participant a second time to discuss on how easy it was to use the digital Talking Mats and their views on their completed mats. We asked those who wished to, to continue sending us completed mats beyond the initial 6 weeks. We visited them again in 6 months to discuss how they were managing.
15 participants completed all 6 mats and 12 participants continued to complete mats over the length of the project. Participants completed 235 digital mats across all 13 topics
There were 3 particularly significant findings
1. At 18 months the participants living with dementia actually felt their well-being had improved, despite dementia being a progressive illness.
2. For the participants living with stroke the results were even more striking as 95% felt things were going well at the end of the project in comparison with 47% at the beginning.
3. At the end of the project the percentage of people with learning disability who felt things were not going well had reduced from 19% to 10%. Furthermore the percentage of people indicating that they were not sure about their views had increased from 27% to 42%. There can be a tendency for people with learning disability when using Talking Mats, to express their views at either end of the mat and to rarely use the mid- point. However being able to use the unsure mid- point is noteworthy as it indicates that the participants in the project realised that they could express their views not only as black or white but could indicate that they were unsure. This awareness opens up the potential for people to express views more thoughtfully with opportunities for further exploration.
Here are three examples of how using the DTM supported people to self-manage situations in their lives. Click on image to enlarge.
As well as helping participants self-manage their long term conditions, an unexpected outcome of this project is that many people found that using the DTM helped them see the positive things in their life and not just the negative. It also highlighted that despite having a long term condition and, for many also a deteriorating one, that things were not getting worse.
Click here for full report including 6,12 and 18 month reports to the funders 20180717 Alliance full report
Click here for the summary report 20180717 Alliance Final Short Report
