'Tree of Life' mural created for Cwm Taf Morgannwg's Memory Assessment Service

Pupils from Treorchy Comprehensive School have been working alongside the Cwm Taf Morgannwg Memory Assessment Service in the Health and Wellbeing Centre based at Ysbyty George Thomas. @tcsartdept

They have been busy creating a ‘Tree of Life’ mural to bring colour to the centre and to remember and celebrate the lives of those who have passed away.

Clinical Nurse Specialist Hayley Wright explains:

“Our Tuesday morning social group initially started as a peer support group for people diagnosed with dementia, however over the years it has evolved into so much more. The group has become its own community of people with dementia and other mental health issues, and some older people with no diagnosis, all providing support to each other, companionship and a community.

“It’s been so amazing to see this develop and see the amount of care they have all developed for each other, checking in with each other outside of group and checking on people who haven’t turned up some weeks. When we decided we wanted to create a mural and it seemed right look to our local community school to get involved and Treorchy comprehensive school seemed like the natural fit. The school was so happy to get on board and very quickly got together a fantastic group of students who were really excited to take on the project.

“Initially, we met with the pupils and explained who we are, what we do and the whole ethos of the group, we took a video of the setting so they had an idea of how they could make the mural fit in with the current style of the setting. The idea of the mural is a tree of life. We wanted to be able to remember the people we have sadly lost over the years but also celebrate all the people involved in the group that has become ‘our community’ so the idea of adding leaves and butterflies to our tree of life seemed really apt. We also like to instil in our patient group that you can ‘live well’ with dementia, and other mental health issues, so a tree of life mural fits in well with the message we try really hard to show our patients.”

11/07/2023