Community Conversations
People living with dementia are members of society with the same human right as any other, however, when people are diagnosed with dementia they often experience exclusion, stigma and isolation.
Therefore, it is time to ask people living with dementia, their carers and family members, what is important to them and what they feel their communities can do to become more dementia friendly.
In 2017 in collaboration with Volunteer Edinburgh we were awarded a Development Grant from the Life Changes Trust. As part of this we carried out three community consultation events; we believe that the voices of people living with dementia and their carers should be at the start and the heart of the process of creating dementia friendly communities. We wanted to find out what is important to them and what they feel their communities can do to become more dementia friendly. We also wanted to hear from other members of the community who would like to help support people living with dementia.
Consultation Outcomes
Our work is embedded in the needs of people in our community; we used these community consultations to establish local requirements for support and opportunities to develop the community to meet the needs of people living with dementia and their carers.
Below is a list of key priorities that have been identified through our consultation process with our implementation strategies:
Offer informal emotional and social support
- Currie Library Drop-in Sessions
- Second Dementia Café in Currie – Tuesday’s Tea and Tunes
- Carers Peer Support Group – at PALM café
- Potential Befriending Service in the Penltands Area
Raising community awareness of dementia and educating the community
- Dementia Friendly Business Scheme
- Dementia Awareness Week
- Dementia Training for DFP Volunteers
- Attending Networking Events (Parliament Reception, Pentlands Cluster Meetings, Dementia Consultations)
Ensuring dementia friendly environments e.g. dementia friendly signage
- Planned Environmental/ Signage Audit of the Pentlands Area
- Informing businesses through Dementia Friendly Business Scheme
Information giving
- New DFP Leaflets
- Currie Library Drop-in Sessions
- Preparing a DFP Newsletter
- Creating community ‘access points’ in all three communities through the Dementia Friendly Business Scheme
Transport
- Out of scope of our project, but hope to cover with a befriending service
- Continue to feed into community transport consultation process
You can access detailed Consultation Evaluation Report by following the link below:
Please get in touch if you would like more information about these events and our findings.