Hello everyone, this is Diane Rasmussen Mccarry with UK Column. I'm really happy to be joined today by Louise Payton. She is a registered nurse as well as a holistic health practitioner. I first met with her at the Thetford Truth and Freedom Festival that I attended a couple of weeks ago. Louise, welcome to UK Column. It's really again great to have you here today. Do you maybe want to tell us a little bit more about yourself please?
Hello, Thank you so much for inviting me, Diane, and it was lovely to meet you. Yeah, so I've been nursing qualified in 1982. I did nursing auxiliary work before that from 1978. And so, you know, well over 40 years of nursing, I've seen a lot of changes. I've worked in a lot of different places, hospitals, community hospitals, care homes, prison work and I currently do a home based telephone clinician job giving advice and clinical triage to a variety of different companies.
I seen so many changes in nursing in that time, not necessarily for the better. I started doing complementary therapies in the mid 90s. So again, alongside the nursing, I have always had an interest in natural medicine and now leading towards my retirement from nursing, I would just want to focus more on complementary alternative holistic therapies and my artwork that I do. So it's been quite a journey,
quite buried. I've learned a lot of things, a lot of therapies, and yeah, it's been quite a journey. Certainly sounds like it. Where did you do your training? The nurse training was in Royal Tunbridge Wells very because I started off at the West Suffolk Hospital. But when I went to do my training I went to Royal Tunbridge Wells and we did part of our training at the Kenton Sussex Hospital and part at Pembrey Hospital. I believe that may well have changed now, but that's what it
was like back in 1980 etcetera. And there were some very old fashioned strict Nightingale wards there on, on some of the the places that we worked with very, very extremely strict sisters that I have to say the strange thing was because I was always good at doing what I was told. Excuse me. And on those strictest wards where you could literally hear a pin drop, I got the most glowing reports having done three months on each of those units. So the training was quite tough actually.
I remember writing letters back to my old colleagues and saying oh it's really tough, but I got through it and I learned a lot. I don't think the training is quite like that these days. But it was a very rewarding, interesting sort of journey again. And you learnt straight, straight off the off the bat really. You kind of did six weeks training three months on a year
on a ward. You go back to study blocks, but a lot of your time was hands on doing the work right from the start and if you didn't like that in the first few weeks, there were some that left they would know straight away. Plus I'd had about 18 months experience working with elderly before I even applied to do my nurse training where I was even doing last offices on patients at 18 years old.
So, and you had the, the training in the hospital even for that, you know, being, being a, they call them care assistants now, but they've been nursing auxiliaries back then. So what do you think are some of the differences? And from our previous discussion, it sounds like they're quite significant, the difference between what you experienced when you were training compared to what today's new nurses are are doing in their training. I've been, I understand. Well, it's all degree based now.
It's very academic. And I don't know what their syllabus cried to, you know, if the training is now, but I know that because it's more like degree academic based. And I find a lot of nurses newly qualified, they want to go on to other roles completely. They don't actually want to be the nurse on the floor as it used to be. They want to go straight to management that that's their whole aim because of like the the career advancements that there are. They want to go to jobs that
aren't hands on at all. Even when I did 111, I was still working in care homes as well. And there were nurses there that had literally just qualified. And to me, I just, I thought that's why would you do your training and then and then do that. So the training that I believe it's their second year of training that they actually go on the ward for the first time. So it does attract a different
culture of nurses. I just think it's a different, it's a different ball game now and it does attract a different type of person. But where we used to think of the actual nurse really hands on and it was, you know, really good basic nursing care, etcetera and assisting doctors and things with certain procedures, nurses nowadays do do a lot more extended nurse roles and procedures than they
did when I first qualified. So sometimes you would have the the junior doctors or you know, the houseman doctors in the hospital would come and do certain procedures. But now nursing staff do those procedures. And also the difference I suppose is I haven't actually worked in a hospital for many, many years, but I know staffing levels have changed. All sorts of things have changed. And going into care homes years ago, they were, they were like care of the elderly were quite
able. They they weren't really poorly. Whereas what's happened to all of those really poorly people would be nursed in hospitals. And there were different kind of grades of what were called geriatric units, rehabilitation, long stay, acute, all of these things. Well, then they all seemed to get shipped out into the
community into care homes. So the care homes and went from like 15 bedded beautifully run places to these giant 60 bedded unit, 60 bedded nursing homes with really complex needs of the patients and quite often just one nurse either per unit or one nurse in the whole home. And increasingly what's happened with that as well is that not only did that did these people go into nursing homes, the management started to introduce
non clinical managers. In residential homes that wasn't so bad, but in nursing homes, I thought that that just doesn't work in my opinion. And increasingly you can be working at a nursing home with really complex needs, patients or residents and the manager is non clinical. And if you're the only nurse on or the only nurse on that shift, you you've got no support or backup. That, that's very interesting to hear about because it kind of reflects some of the things that I've heard about it.
But other people's recent experiences in hospitals and care settings and not being able to get whatever it is that they need or to, you know, to sort of wait for hours for any, any sort of assistance for anyone to come into the room, whether it's a a fully qualified registered nurse or even just a basic care worker to bring them a glass of water. Is that some things that you've
heard as well? Yeah. So, so the the other thing to mention is that years ago the the staffing levels were much higher and patients, you could take them out for walks in the local park and things like that. It was, it was a pleasure and they were really well looked after. And then with this increase in numbers, it's all these big corporate companies opening care homes. They designed the care homes that seem to be for anything other than nursing.
There never seems to be enough space to use manual handling equipment, etcetera. And and they all look very nice and showy in reception. They say, oh, was this a beautiful new home, You think? Well, working in it and living in it for the residents, I'm not so sure. And the staffing levels have just been slashed. I mean, they seem to be ever decreasing and money and
everything. So equipment and money, sorry, the money for the equipment and the staffing levels have just decreased so much that the quality of care tends to be lacking. There are some amazing care assistants, but what makes it very difficult is the staffing levels. And also there seems to be this, if you can't get a job anywhere else or just go and get a care assistant job, and they do tend to take on anybody and that
doesn't always work. And it makes it very difficult for nurses that are very nursing care assistants that are very dedicated to their work and work very hard. But you physically can't go and answer a bell when you're in the middle of attending to a patient with complex needs, even from a basic care point of view. And if they don't put on staff to do that, you can literally be 12 hours on a on a shift and there are bells going constantly.
And then they get complaints and and that what can the staff do or say? They physically can't drop someone and go and then spend another 20 minutes attending to the person calling a bell and then someone else rings. You know, it's it's not money. But I mean, the reality is they're physically is not the staff to go around. They just won't allocate them. And then, yeah, I mean, I could
talk to ages about that really. But I mean, yeah, the staffing levels are just not a not, not adequate at all. And often the equipment, you know, that they say you can have one hand towel and something else to go and do a bed bath with somebody. And I'm scratching my head thinking how on earth are you supposed to do a bed bath and attend to somebody's needs with that? And, and I think is this the level of nursing care it's become? It's, it's really concerning.
And I feel so sorry for the residents. It's soul destroying having to work in places like that for the, for the residents. That's the reason we're they're going there. And it's just very hard to work in those conditions And management don't want to know. It's all just money, budget, profit margins. They're just corporate businesses. So what do the professional bodies have to say about this
related to nurses? Have they made any statements or or done any advocacy work on behalf of the nurses? I, I don't know, I haven't mainly looked in in into that they, they, they say they have, you know, they'll have risk assessments and criterias for staffing ratios of patients. But on paper you can make things look, yes, that makes sense.
But in practicality, certain residents need a higher level of care and the layout of the home, all sorts of reasons why that actually doesn't necessarily work. So they can manipulate the numbers and say, well, you've got three staff on the floor downstairs, but we only need 2 upstairs. And then when a fuss is made, they say, all right, well, we're borrowed from the one downstairs to go up. And you think, well, now you've just moved the problem robbing Peter to play Paul.
And they, they would justify it saying, well, officially this is the ratio that you need. It's, it's all approved that that's OK. And I think, well, I don't know who makes those decisions because on the floor it doesn't really work. So you mentioned this issue of the the businesses taking over and obviously any business needs to make money and that's completely fair.
But what do you see happening in, in terms of like, you know, it sounds like they're definitely putting profits way ahead of the people that they're meant to take care of. Do you know any more about that? I don't know going forwards what, what the plan is apart from turning into way I, but I, I, the old homes often used to be privately run homes with 15 beds, 12 to 15 beds. And they, they were absolutely
amazing. And then now it's a business and so big companies and businesses buy or, or or have these nursing homes built and for them it all works out fine because and of course the residents or the families have to pay huge amount, ridiculous amounts of money. I mean, you know, absolutely astronomical fees. And then you've got bells ringing. The staff can't get to you. I mean, I don't know what they're going to do going forwards.
I know sort of in some parts of nursing they really are trying to change things to AI. Well, as far as I know, ChatGPT can't change bed sheets or bathe someone, if that makes any difference at all. But I could.
I do understand. I can see that coming because I know that in recent years there's been, as you'll know this better than me, likely the GPS and other medical workers have resorted to just sort of Googling things just the same way that individuals could, you know, And I've seen my own GP do this in the past where I came in with a concern and she typed it into Google to see what, you know, what I should do or one of the things that's made me kind of lose faith in the, the system
in general. But I can certainly see where you're going with the, the idea about AI as well as I've also known as well, coming from the university system that I've worked at universities that had nursing schools where they were doing degrees in nursing to sort of get their, their qualification, usually an undergrad degree or something
like that. And one of the things that I'd heard about at these universities is that some of the, the students in their first year or so of their studies would not, as you said, not have access to actual patients. But some of them even had simulators where they were working on, you know, pretend bodies to, to learn how to do
procedures. Now, you know, if we take that into consideration with any profession where someone is hands on with someone, even something like hair styling, for example, I would not want someone who to, to cut my hair who had only read about cutting hair or had pretended to cut hair. And it's just as it's even more serious with nursing, of course, because you're talking about people's licence and safety that are in danger.
So I think that's that's a really, really important point to bring out if that makes sense to. You when I trained, yeah, yeah. Every procedure is your first. You know, there's a first time for all of them, but you have to get on to it. You'll have been in study proc, you'd have been shown, demonstrated, you know, etcetera. And then you might shadow somebody doing a procedure on the ward. And then they say, OK, it's your turn now and you do it, you know, probably under supervision.
You know, you do have exams to do, aseptic technique, you know, or the practical exams you have to do where you were assessed. And they would just ask permission of the patient at the time. And then you carry on from there. Never did anything on a dummy. And. Well, yeah, the other thing I was going to say about just going back to the care homes is that the medications just generally and hospitals and care
homes was the medications. When I started, you would have a trolley that just lifted up a lid and you would do the drug round. It probably didn't take too long. And then the most I've seen on one patient these days is 18 mass charts. They're A4 pages of medications with 18 mass charts. Now, the drug rounds are trolleys that you have to crawl right down to the floor, right up from your shoulder height down to the floor to get to all the medications.
And they can take 3 to 4 hours per drug round. And you're doing at least three of those a day, if not 4, depending on the length of your shift. And on top of that, you're having to deal with emergencies, staff care planning, documentation, phone calls, dressings, wound care procedures, all sorts of manner
of things. But the and all these patients are just filled with medications that they're taking X number of medications for the side effects of the first medications that that the list gets so long of the side effects it's worse than the problem they had in the first place.
That's, that's really shocking. I mean, I've heard a bit about this before, of course, that people sort of get the side effects then they, they take something to counter side effects, but something like 18 medications and and still be alive after putting that which into your body every day is, is
really quite astonishing. And I would imagine as well that that considering all of the different distractions and demands that that the nurses have on their time, that that also increases the the possibility that they could create errors in medications and give them the wrong dose or miss a dose or something like that. Absolutely.
And this was the the contradiction that we would have certain, you know, they'd have to have audits every week and any drug errors would come up and then they would clamp down the nurses. You must not be distract distracted doing your drug round. Do you think when you're telling me I have to answer the phones? Well, don't answer the phone that would last for about half a day. So they would say don't be
distracted. You'd have care assistants come up and say, well, they'd want you for things, various things that were minor things that didn't need to, you didn't need to be interrupted for if it was an emergency, fine. But they often would come to you for things that they really, really didn't need to disturb you for.
And that is a complete distraction when you're calculating and counting out, because you have to count every medication, you have to log it. You know, it can be quite complicated doing the drop round, to be honest. And, and so you would get all these constant distractions and it was impossible to do around without them. And so then they would say to the nurse, well, you mustn't be distracted. And then they say, why didn't you speak to so and so about that?
Why didn't you take that call? Because you told me not to be distracted. Well, you have to do that as well. And it was like, well, which do you want? You can't do better. And and so drug errors will happen. The stress levels go up with the concentration. It's you've got to deal with drop doctors round. Sometimes they just come unannounced and you're just expected to drop everything. There's, you know, you'd have to do catheterizations, you have to do procedures, you have to do
dressings, obviously. It's kind of like trying to work out your time with that to a certain extent that you've got, you've got the patients have got meals, they've got to be cared for as well. So you've got to liaise everything. You're sort of clock watching every single minute of the entire shift trying to work out how everything's going to unfold. And it's like learn to dance on the moving carpet because it's
changes all the time. There aren't planned times, you have to just roll with what's happening at the time. And I, and I think you said something to me before about the attitude that family members and carers have had toward nurses as well as has changed over time. What is that in relation to? Having respect for nurses and and how they're treated. Oh, all right. Well, maybe not so much the relatives. Usually they are are OK and you do explain things well to the paper.
The relatives that they're normally absolutely fine. It's it's some of the culture of the care assistants they take on. I don't know whether it's a younger generation thing. Possibly. It seems like they've never been told the word no or maybe any discipline. Maybe it's because I'm just so old school, but they have absolute, you know, respect for nurses whatsoever. Some of them.
Some of them, absolutely. And what do we know about some of the training of of some of the carers because it sounds like that's of great concern as well? Yes, everyone's supposed to be manual handling trained and that should be several days long. And after that you, we all of us have to have refreshers every year for manual handling
updates. And the number of times I've been on the update and they've got brand new carers in there just for about four hours doing an update, but they've never done the actual full training. And then they're signed off to go and work in the care home. As for basic nursing care, I, I don't think there is any training in the actual care homes and the hospitals you'd have that they probably just
shadow with someone. It's that, you know, if they're not taught absolutely from the start, then they're, they're, they're shown substandard levels of care to start with, so they don't know any better. So then that would obviously I guess result in the potential to a lot of dangers for the patients or the the residents in the care homes. Yeah, accidents are accidents are more likely to happen and
indeed they do happen. If people haven't take due care with an elderly resident with very fragile skin and they're in a wheelchair and they've been mobilised somewhere else and transferred from that wheelchair. You've got the footplates to come up etcetera and everything. And they might be going into transport for a hospital appointment and back or something. And they haven't protected their legs properly and they're just quickly flipping up these things and transferring them.
And they've come back with the most awful skin tear wounds that we then on top of everything else, have to do. All the documentation on that, adhere to it all, you know, all the dressing protocols and paperwork to go with that. The fact that that patient's now got an injury that's been inflicted by the staff that could have been avoided if if they're sorry, if it could have been avoided if they'd really taken that much care. Because yeah, that would happen
quite, quite often. And then people, I mean, a long time ago, I worked in a Community Hospital as an agency nurse. And I was doing a night shift. And I think they were so short staffed, I didn't have a care assistant with me for the whole unit. And they had this young girl that was not even a care assistant, shall we say, working with me. I wasn't happy. I, my hands were tied. I couldn't walk out on the shift.
I was the only person there and I was an agency nurse and I just, I thought they said there was nothing else they could do. So in that shift there was a couple of side rooms and you'd have what they call these bed rail cot sides, things that you'd have to risk assessments for to use and everything how you remember whether they had the sides or what maybe that person didn't have sides maybe. But to help we have to do term people and reposition them and for ground to do and etcetera at
the end of the night shift. And this girl took it upon herself to go and turn this lady in the side room on her own and didn't. You can't do that on your own. And she pulled the sheets and the patient rolled out the other side of the bed and cracked their head. Blood absolutely everywhere. Heads complete a lot. But I mean, there was like 2 white sheets, completely red.
And I was still cleaning that up top of everything, you know, obviously looked off the patient to get them back and patch that up. And the day stuff started to come in and then what on earth has happened? It was just this blood everywhere in this absolute carnage. It's just horrendous. And you know, it's like, well, I asked you not to leave me with, with a care assistant. I cannot be responsible for her everywhere she goes. I didn't ask her to do that.
And this is what's happened. And I was there an hour and a half after my shift finishing up everything and documenting it and all the rest of it. So I mean, that was just, that was just horrendous. And another thing that you've mentioned as well to me in previous conversations is, is the the people coming in from other countries to work in these settings. What can you tell us about that?
I guess there's been a lot of nurses that didn't qualify in the UK for their degrees and and there's been some questions about their ability to do the job here correctly. Yeah, I mean, I think a lot of Filipino nurses came over years ago and they're very hard working. And and then I don't know, more recently was that a lot of Romanian nurses and that come over and I was in one home where I was the only English nurse and I had Filipinos against the
Romanians, the same home. But, but I think in that same home, the, the worse and shall we say, and another home as well. Actually, they hadn't actually got their registration through in the UK and they were practising and they were nursing and they were cutting corners and not doing things quite right. And one home, I did actually say, look, this is completely unacceptable and you're putting, they're putting my PIN at risk and the management would do nothing, absolutely nothing.
And now you said there's some investigations going on about some Nigerian nurses. Is that what you said to me before as well? I think, I think the Guardian, as we saw it online had had said that there was an investigation into 700 Nigerian nurses that possibly had faked their qualifications in Nigeria to to come over.
But what's kind of alarming with that is with some of the triage calls that I do, some of them are NHS authorities and I do get a lot of foreign nurses phone in for triage and their their communications. I mean, their communication skills are just so poor that you just how do they manage on the ward? Have they managed doing drug calculations and communications with the doctors? How do they, how do they actually, it was rapport with
the residents and patients. It's, I mean, sometimes the calls I just got and I look and I think, my goodness, you're a staff nurse. I'm just baffled. And the language barrier, you know, some of them can barely speak English. Yeah, it's quite disturbing and it's upsetting for patients and residents. I'm sure you've got very elderly people. They they just don't understand what's going on. Let's go into something else because I'm getting a bit
disturbed by all this. I, I wanted to talk a little about what your story and the fact that you have not been able to work in the NHS system since I believe it was 2001. Can you, can you tell us about that? I suppose it was back in the late 90s, I kind of realised that I don't want to have any more vaccines. And I'd have this battle everywhere I applied to work or any agency because their agencies would chop and change
their contracts. So you'd often jump and change different agencies and you had to apply. And sometimes it would take months and months of jumping through hoops to actually get to getting a shift because of compliance. And part of that compliance, which you often found out right at the end, was that we need to
see all your vaccine status. Excuse me, I had to see all your vaccine status and I would show them the photocopies of, you know, from 1961 and etcetera and the polio and everything like that. And then even I did have hep BI suppose when I did my nurse training and I probably did have some boosters a bit later on. And then it was like, no more,
I'm not having it anymore. And then they'd say, well, you're not compliant if you if you're not having the boosters and we now we need you to have MMR and whatever all these other ridiculous vaccines are. And I said, well, I'm not having any more. And so I would be non compliant. So I was told I couldn't work for the NHS anymore. I mean, I had just worked 18 years in a private hospital.
But I mean if I did want to work in the NHS or any jobs with the NHS, I was prohibited because I was non compliant. And then some agencies were very strict and they would say you're non compliant. So then other agencies were not so bad. And then some actually asked me to go to my GP for proof of some vaccines that I said, well it
wasn't the GP that gave them. If I went to my GP, he would ask me to show the proof of the little slip of paper we had when I was at school when I was about 13 years old, say it for TB or etcetera. And so the agency said, well, you need to send a photograph of the injection site. And I said you want a photograph of an injection site that's nearly 50 years old, right. I contacted my, I contacted my GP surgery, spoke to a practise nurse and she said, what's this
company? What are you talking about? How ridiculous? I said, I know and that's what you get when you apply for a job these days. I never heard anything so more ridiculous. And then I'd say like, well, you know, why do I need to have that jab? And they'd say, well, it's to protect the patients. And I said so if I had so if I have any vaccines at home, all my neighbours are protected. Are they Why don't they have the job then? I mean, what, how does that work?
Well, you, you might have the illness as but I don't try yes, but you might do. I thought, right. But this, this is getting nowhere then, is it? So I mean, this is just the thing. And then of course, when the COVID thing came along, well, the pandemic, that's it. I didn't even want to have the test, but I had to have tests three times a week. But when it came to the jab and I said to my friend right at the start, I said, you see, and they make this mandatory.
It's healthcare are going to be hit first. And of course that was it. And I wouldn't have it. I wouldn't have it. And the agency say it's not us, not, not, you know, making, making it compulsory or mandatory is the care homes went, went through the door and one of them that I'd been working out for about 3 years. And I just said, Louise, what are you going to do? And I said, well, I don't know, but I'm not having the job. And that's that I said I'm not having it.
And several other nurses didn't want to have it, but they caved in in the end because of I need it for my mortgage. Well, I had two mortgages. I had lots of financial commitments and it was financially quite devastating, to be honest. It was really, really, really difficult. And I've managed to bring myself through that. But I wasn't going to cave in and have the jab because that's what they wanted. Oh, I can't go on holiday. Oh, well, I need to have the
jab. Well, that's ridiculous if you're valuing, you know, valuing A2 week holiday over your your life and health. So again, come November 21, I wasn't allowed through the doorway. So that's when I found this job that I wouldn't normally have looked price had to be honest because the pay is really low, but it was a home based job and so at least I didn't have to go and mix with anyone. And yeah, home based telephone clinician job, but and that's that, you know.
But yeah, no, I wouldn't, wouldn't have it, wouldn't cave in, not at all. And so many people now said that they wish they hadn't had it. Yeah, yeah, and good for you because I didn't have them either. And I personally, I don't know about you, but I don't know a single person who regrets not taking it. But of course, you know, it's the position of UK column that we will do what we can to support the vaccine injured. And we have said this from the very beginning when we started
to see this coming out. And I think you've told me some things as well about sort of some of the changes in people's health after the jab that you've you've heard about in your own practise. I have because we have to take all of their medical history. When we do do a call, we have to
take all of that. We have to, you know, whatever the situation is that they're going through at the time or their symptoms, we have to take their medical history, all of it, even if it's relevant to that call or not. We document that all their medications, their allergies,
vaccines, if it is relevant. And usually they're they're on there just, you know, not every vaccine they've ever had, but, you know, certain vaccines are normally listed and then talking through whatever's going on with them at the time. And some people are so desperately ill and they were fine before they had the vaccines. And some people that had chronic illnesses just got worse and worse since they had the vaccines.
Right, because it from what I understand, not being a medical professional, but from what I understand it, it can have an impact on your immune system. And so if you have a a chronic illness that affects immunity, then then that will obviously cause you to have more symptoms even with the illness you had originally, let alone what it might cause and further damage that you've had after the vaccines or jabs.
Don't really know the insurance and outs all the science of it, but there's all this talk of spike proteins and that if they've had the flu jabs then the COVID jabs can trigger illnesses and things. It's it's quite a dark, dark cold to go down really. Yeah, I, I heard from lots of people who were vaccinated who said at least they had COVID.
Of course, I personally don't think that it was so called COVID because we, but they had, they certainly had something that made them sick several times. And before I left the university system, there were so many times when I was covering for people who had been vaccinated that were off sick all the time. And I was never off sick, at least any more than I would have been otherwise because I didn't
test and I didn't jab. But IA lot of people know this already who watch UK, call them regularly. But in my role in that we're dealing with information and media. When I was still an academic, I was offered £350,000 by a local NHS board in Scotland where I was working at the time to help promote the jobs to young people. And I turned down the money and I said, no, I'm not going to promote this because I don't know whether or not it's a good idea.
And if someone were injured by these jabs then and they took it because they read messaging that I created that, that I would somehow feel complicit in, in injuring them or worse. So it was again, for me, there were, there were a lot of implications to what happened to me in my career as a result of that, but I, I feel much better about it and it helps me sleep just a bit better at night knowing that I didn't contribute
to any of this. So I just want to congratulate you as well, because the pressure must have been even worse being in the medical system. Thank you. Yeah, so and I also wouldn't, I said if the doctors come around to do the COVID jabs, I said please don't include me. I'm not, I don't have any part of it. And they let you know I didn't have to. I was on shift when they were doing some. I said I'm not having any part
of that. And and of course, all the falsifying death certificates weren't there. You know, even if you got run over by a bus or put it down as COVID, you know it's misinformation. So I, I also want to go back as well to something that you mentioned to me previously, which is about the rate of dementia. And I have to admit a bit personally interested in this because my father passed away of, of dementia when he was only 67.
But I'm just wondering if you could say a little bit more about that because I do know that generally speaking, as a society, we are seeing a rapid increase in dementia rates across the population in this country and other Western countries. So what have you seen in terms of dementia and and how that's worked out in the care homes?
When I first would have, you know, worked in a care home or had anything to do with, with the care home, I don't know, over, you know, 40 years ago when I said they'd have like these 12 or 15 bedded sort of care homes sort of privately run. I mean, they probably didn't have a dementia patient in there. And then over the years, the, the, the number of dementia patients has increased so much that there is, there's no such thing as a care home or nursing home without them now.
And even though they might have a whole unit allocated to them, I don't know, it just seems it just seemed to be everywhere just increasing. And then we know the cause of that can be like all to do with the food chain is all you know, it's, you're not really getting good nutrition even from normal food chain from supermarkets to anywhere.
And then you've got the medications, you know, you've got heavy metals or aluminium that I know there are certain drugs and medic medications that kind of contribute to that. There are so many, you know, sort of tactical angles really. And it is definitely increasing the dementia rate. You know, they say always old age. I know it's not the, you know, you've got people that can live without it. And then why are such young people getting dementia, you know, relatively young?
So it's, it's a horrible thing, but it's, I just think the numbers have increased quite a lot over the years. Yeah. When my father was first diagnosed with dementia, this is of course only one case, but the type of dementia he had which affected the frontal lobe rather than sort of think of Alzheimer's traditionally or it, but there are a lot of different types of dementias.
And so his was called frontal temporal dementia or ticks disease or kind of this, you know, and it affects a different area of the brain. But they said at the time, the neurologist is saying to us that it could affect anyone. People could be in their 30s and have this type of dementia and still die from it. So it wasn't necessarily age
related. And I think there's still a lot of work that needs to be done to dispel that myth that someone who so called has dementia or Alzheimer's as everything gets lumped together, that it's somebody who's 90 years old and bedridden, when that is actually not the case anymore. And I think we need to do some more work around this. Yes, definitely. Yeah. It's really quite worrying the level of dementia.
But I think a lot of it, some of it can actually be almost reversed, can be reduced with, you know, nutritional, you know, special nutritional supplements and things. So some of it is metabolic looking at nutrition. And just. Get me to the toxins. Yeah, Let's talk about some, some of your work as a holistic
health practitioner. And I and I want to say this of course to the the viewers and listeners with the disclaimer that UK column does not take the position of, of, of advocating for a pushing or recommending any particular medical treatments, but that we're just only providing this for information only. So I just want to make that
clear to everyone. First of all, I first want to point out what, what, what drew me to talk to you in the 1st place was the, the beautiful artwork that you had on display at the Thetford Festival. So just to give people an example of the kinds of things that you do. And I know that you have much more and will provide links to people so that they can look at your shop. But this first was a, a, a glass pendant that I purchased from you, which I really love. I just love the colour in it
just gorgeous. And this was a, I also bought a cleansing intention candle, which the label says it's handmade soy wax, essential oils, crystals, Himalayan salt, herbs, and biodegradable glitter. So do you want to maybe talk a little bit, a little bit about some of your, your products And, and also how did you create the ability to make things like this? Because I have no artistic ability whatsoever. So I'm always impressed by people who who can do things
like this. I don't even know where it started really. I mean, I think I always in in hindsight about my time again, I would have I would pursued art, art side and creative side long, you know, long, long, long ago, But it was something that I kind of had to put on the back
burner. I started doing some acrylic for paintings and then I started making some Angel, doing some sort of abstract, he sort of Angel paintings because I was teaching angelic Reiki and people were attracted to the energies and the colours and I don't know how the rest
happened. I started doing resin orgonite pyramids and pendants and the heart pendants and and then it's just expanded from there, you know, self draining soaped dishes, all sorts of manner of resin articles and with special Petri effects in them with Alcoholics and mica powders and things. And then I just got so much that somebody said, well, why why don't you do a stall? I said, well, I haven't got a gazebo or tables.
But then apparently the local town, you just hire them from the council and they're already there on the square. So. So I started doing a market stall just over 2 years ago on a Saturday. Yeah, so I make intention candles. I have got a little YouTube on that, like a 10 minute video on that. I make beeswax candles. I have made some homemade incense, but I do sell or incense as well. What else do I else do? I make key fobs, pendants, jewellery, clay work.
I started doing some clay work, polymer clay, various different types of clay and stonework, how techs play, which is like liquid clay and working with fabric. So sort of that's more of a newer project, doing different things with that, lots of different sort of mixed mediums really. And just sort of, you know, whatever, whatever I can think of next, really just get inspired to make something else and then people ask for different things as well.
So do little fairy house lanterns, lights in and, you know, bookmarks and hugging couples and resin skulls with various things in lots and lots of lots of different things, really. I think that can be such a make a big difference on our health, whether or not people believe that it has a direct impact on curing a particular condition.
I think just the, the idea of just seeing something that looks nice or wearing something that looks nice or, or even how something smells, I think is something that just can make us feel better. I, I still remember that on that first day of the festival when I, I was, I had my talk on the first day that I, that I gave and it was so hot. I'm sure you'll remember it's like 30° and it was so hot.
But what I remember as much as the heat was the smell of the incense that you had burning in your stall. Because I was, I don't know if you remember, I was sitting at a table next to you and I was like, it's really hot. I'm, I'm wearing a dress to look professional. I am really sweaty. But the instance was calming me down just to the point to where I got to where it was. It was time for me to go on stage. So for me, I did appreciate that.
Just just a personal thank you on that point as well. Do you want to talk a little bit about the different healing modalities that you that you use in your practise, in addition to things looking nice and selling nice because I know you have a lot of other skills as well. So I started doing those therapies in in the mid 90s. I did aromatherapy massage. I don't do that quite so much now, but it's quite hard work.
But I do reflexology, hot stone reflexology, working on the points on the feet, etcetera, which corresponds to the, to the
body organs and systems. I do the emotional freedom techniques, tapping therapy where we look at people's limiting beliefs or, or emotions, whatever, whatever is, you know, whatever's actually happened with them at the time, wherever their issue is. And you get the issues sort of up out, tapped on, looked at and neutralised basically, which is different from counselling where you keep talking about the same thing. You're kind of re energising it
with EFT. We don't want to go into long stories, keep energising it. Just want to get it up, out, tapped up, tapped on, looked at, neutralised so that it's cleared, it's actually neutralised. So it's not going to be keep re energising it. So there's an awful lot you can learn about EFT and matrix re imprinting and the traditional Reiki I did in India, trips to India. But I then in 2000 and 2003. I did the Master's in 2006 anyway for angelic Reiki.
Angelic Reiki was a newer system channel through from Archangel Metatron. So it's very angelic. You have a healing Angel assigned to you. The angels do the actual attunement and the healing view and there's no lineage so it doesn't come through all different consciousness of different masters. The attunements are done by the angelic realm and there's a very powerful cleansing process before each attunement. There's three attunements and levels one and two.
I have a special 30 Archangel attunement on the on the Sunday the last day and there are 9 different healing modalities within that system. I've also done the balance procedure where you're kind of using like a body sway test on the thymus art point quantum touch healing where you could realign bones and you're working with breath work, fire breath and all sorts of different breath work. It's very fascinating therapy as well.
I've done Reiki drumming which is actually very beneficial for dementia, so it's actually good to take that into care homes if they're interested in going in with a frame drum. So yes, research on how that helps with dementia. Breaky drumming. I have crystal singing bowls, do colour mirrors this sort of colour therapy else meditation,
do various workshops. So I teach EFT and angelic Reiki because I think the way forward with medicine is energy medicine working with like frequencies, vibrations, even colours. They will have their own unique vibration and frequency. Got sound healing, got healing machine that sends quantum sort of frequencies, scale of technology.
I think all of that's the way forward really is basically energy medicine working with meridians or you know, rather than just the physical because I believe what I said, we're 1% quantum physics says we're 1% physical and 99% the sort of spiritual energetic, non physical part. And yet medicine and us tend to focus 99% of our time on the 1% bit of that, isn't it? It makes more sense to spend 99%
of the time on the 99%. Well, you know, that's an interesting, it's an interesting observation that that actually
makes a lot of sense. And, and you know, what I will say about my experiences when I've tried different methods of holistic healing for myself is one of the things that I consider deeply, especially with things like acupuncture and how they've been around for much longer than any of the sort of allopathic or what we would call modern day traditional Western medical approaches such as jabs that have been around for a very short amount of time compared to how long some of these
traditional truly traditional therapies have been around. So I personally think, and again, keeping UK columns position into mind that we don't, we don't recommend or, or condone or push any particular medical treatments for anything. So it's my personal opinion that these things that have been around for a while must have some effect and that's why
they've been around for so long. Even if there's no so called, you know, random, random controlled child studies, which in some cases there are for things like Reiki and, and acupuncture and other things that they have noticed that there is a scientific difference, for example, with things like Reiki. So I think that this is just again, my opinion that it's been the medical establishment, the sort of the, you know, the pharmaceutical industrial
complex, if we want to call it that, that has been putting out this type of information to say, oh, no, supplements are bad for you. Don't take omega-3 because that's really not going to help you. What you really need is this newly developed drug by Pfizer to make you better. So I think there's a lot of narrative in that that that we are given that we maybe not shouldn't be listening to quite as much as some people too.
Yeah. And sadly the the GPS are kind of very much fed from the pharmaceutical hotels really. And it's a multi billion power business, isn't it? They really don't want people to be well, they want to just keep them on this, you know, stream of medications for life, really. You did say that some of them do recommend osteopathy Can can you say anything about that? Well, with my job I have to go by the narrative to a certain extent, if you know what I mean.
I have to say check with your GP first, etcetera. And to the NHS Choices site and MC guidelines and on the NMC site it does mention osteopathy. So invariably when people have back problems and you know, they, they say, well, it's so difficult to get hold of my doctor and it would take two weeks an appointment and then and at the end of the day, most of the GPS will just say try rest and take some pain relief. And that's sum total of their advice.
If the problem hasn't improved in a few weeks, they might refer to physio. The physio in some cases is just a telephone consultation and sent a generic exercise sheet. Now that isn't every case, but that has happened. And so when I triage them, obviously I'm triaging to see the extent of what's going on with their back. I'm not diagnosing they, they know that and I might give them home care advice as they've got a list of home care advice that I can give that that does really help.
It's very effective. And I say that if you know, if it's like the sciatic nerve pinch, which it might indicate the symptoms they've got or etcetera, or they've pulled or muscles gone into spasm or something, the quickest, most effective way would be to go privately to an osteopath. You'd have far less time off sick and you might be able to claim it back and they were better to examine as they're the specialists in your back, see exactly what's going on.
They can usually have trigger release points. They can possibly release it in that moment, sort of the main root cause and then give you the right stretches and exercises to do that's relevant to what you've specifically done rather than a generic exercise sheet. So because there's many places the sciatic nerve can be pinched. So it's not always the same stretch and exercise. And you know, some people are very, very grateful, appreciated
that. Just, you know, gauge how they are and what's approach, you know, if that's appropriate, then that's, that's what I'll guide them with. I might say, if you're going to speak to AGP anyway, just mention that you might be thinking about that or, you know, had that suggested. So it's still within my boundaries to say, but I mean the end of the day I'm trying to help them. Yeah, of course.
And the other thing is, you know, sorry, the other thing is that invariably they don't really understand about the immune system and quite confusing or surprisingly is trained medical staff don't seem to know about the immune system. They just say, oh, I've taken paracetamol and ibuprofen, why have I still got these flu like symptoms after about 3 days? And they think, well, you know, what else have you done? What do you mean? What have you done to help you
help recovery? You know, eating. Eating fast food and watching telly and eating fast food? Hopefully not, but that might be the case, right? So I would just, you know, point then right that direction of saying, well, you know, the pharmaceutical medications are fine for mild pain relief, for a fever, etcetera, but they're not actually going to help your immune system, which is the fastest way to recovers to strengthen your immune system.
And the more robust, stronger your immune system is, the less susceptible you are to colds and flus and viruses anyway. So some people just wrap it up, they just love it and give them some information down that Ave because we are about well being as well. They're very much, the company is very much trying to be about well being, but then they kind of limit what you can say. So it's a bit of a contradiction, you know, do what I can really to help people.
So what are the sort of the completely, completely, truly safe and effective things that people can do just to look after themselves at home every day that will benefit everyone? I was going to say, I mean individually you'd have to like everybody is different. So you know, obviously if you're speaking to a person, you have to do a consultation with each
individual person. But generally hydration, you know, 2 litres of pure water, not tap water that's completely contaminated, but pure water, 2 litres of water a day. Have some me time sort of, you know, to clear your mind, whether it's meditation, connecting in nature, going for a walk, going for a walk in a park or in the countryside. Grounding. You can get grounding technology sheets and things to little grounding mats you can put in
when you're at the computer. But yeah, just grounding. Take your shoes and socks off and hang the washing out on the grass with bare feet for 10 minutes or something. Just things like that. Just be grounding meditation, writing goal setting lists or sort of appreciation gratitude lists, depending you know, what you're wanting to achieve and how you feel and just really good basic healthy nutrition
that's dugout of the earth. That's probably got some, you know, there's there's lots on was it by electoral culture now where you're putting these copper coils in the ground with basalt rocks and everything to get the magnetic frequencies in the soil. And that's just boosting the growth of vegetables and getting the nutrients that you need back
into the into the soil. Whereas the farming, it's just absolutely exhausted, exhausted nutrients now and they're not even putting the right fertilisers and things on
etcetera. That's a whole nother Ave. But. Yeah, just so just a good, good basic nutrition, Fresh fruit and vegetables, cooked from scratch, cooked from scratch, just basic, you know, but just try and avoid processed foods, which generally supermarkets, I mean apart from getting that the fresh raw fruit and veg there, everything else is processed, absolutely everything.
So you just have to try and limit processed foods and, and in my kitchen, I have lots and lots and lots of storage jars of dried foods that keep like quinoa, different types of quinoa, rice, different rices, nuts, pulses, grains, you know, it just goes on and on. Seeds you can do, you know, if you have like 4 or five different seeds, you get your essential fatty acids and you can grind them up, but you know, cheers. Seeds, there's all sorts of
dried stuff. You can have lentils, beans, and then you're just adding the vegetables. So you have that basic stock that lasts a long time that you can just top up and then you just top up with your fresh vegetables, fruit, etcetera. If you can get organic, I mean, I'm never so perfect and money and everything, but if you can get organic as much as you can because there are certain foods that are more highly at risk of chemical spraying and etcetera if they're non if they're non organic.
But yeah, so healthy diet, I think we do need supplements these days. We really do. So a good quality vitamin C at least every day. And if you're not, well, you need a therapeutic dose. So that's a higher level. Vitamin D levels are very important. Magnesium is very important. And for a lot of women, iodine is very important, as Lynn Farrow did a book called The Iodine Crisis.
Yeah. So nutrition, meditation, mind do something that you enjoy doing, find a hobby, get a past time that you like, socialise, have time to mix and have conversations with people and not just looking at a screen, not just the. You. Know, actually have a conversation with somebody, meet people, speak to people. And yeah, I don't know what else can I add to that. I mean, yeah, it's a healthy diet. Look after your mind, body and soul. Really. Epsom salt baths are really good.
Thanks for all that. That's some really useful advice and hopefully people can take some ideas from that. And I'm sure that we can all improve on what we do or don't do to ourselves in some way. We're just about out of time, unfortunately. It's been a great conversation. Do you have anything else that you would like to add that you haven't had a chance to say or that we haven't discussed? I think we sort of pretty much covered everything.
I can't think of anything else to add now, really. But yeah, just, you know, just do your research. Do your research or or go to people that have already done the research. If you haven't got time to do the research, you know, there's people like Philip Day. credence.org is is well worth looking at his site and his free newsletter. You've got Doctor McCullough as well with his free newsletter. Some really good information
there. And then there's books like Biology of Belief by Doctor Bruce Lipton, who is a stem cell researcher in the 1960s. He's very well known now. And the other thing was that your intention, your intention when you're drinking or eating food, don't have an argument or have the news on or I mean, get rid of the TV for goodness sake.
These days you don't need it. But I mean, don't have any don't have a negative conversation when you're eating because all of that energy affects your food effects every cell in your body. So there's a doctor Amato was net Masuri the water book. You know, the the intention experiment with waters, how it changes the molecular structure by how you influence the water. So all of those things are really important as well.
So yeah, do your research and just don't just be very wary of mainstream media and what the manipulation is out there because it it's not for your well being, it's not feel good at all. So look at the truth channels and do your research and live your best life. Thank you very much. That's a great place to add. And I would remind everyone to not get rid of your screens or your your phones or whatever you're using if it's to use to watch UK column, because you still do need it for that.
So thank you again for your time, Louise. It's been a wonderful conversation and I hope that people can can learn from it. And certainly your experience is invaluable for all of us to learn from. And thank you again for your bravery and for standing up for what you do was right. Thank you so much.