Shaping mainstream services to make them more dementia-friendly.
Steve Milton
Director - Innovations in Dementia (CIC)

I’m sorry to tell you that you have the very early symptoms of Alzheimer’s Disease?
What now?

A dementia friendly community can be defined as being one in which it is possible for the greatest number of people to live a good life with dementia;
….. where people with dementia are enabled to live as independently as possible and to continue to be part of their community,
…….but at the same time are met with understanding and given support where necessary.
.........and this works for organisations too

…..if just 5% of admissions to residential care were to be delayed for one year as a result of dementiafriendly communities, there would be a net saving of £55 million per annum across England, Wales and
Northern Ireland.
Alzheimer’s Society - Building Dementia-Friendly Communities: A Priority for Everyone 2013

In our work with fifteen Age UKs we encountered a range of creative and innovative approaches to supporting people with dementia. However, most identified clear room for improvement in the accessibility of mainstream services. Given the changing demographic, and the fact that people are being diagnosed with dementia at much earlier stages, this resonates very clearly with the potential of Age UK nationally to respond to the need to make our communities and organisations dementiafriendly.

• Department for Health Think Tank on Big Society and
Dementia 2011
• Joseph Rowntree Foundation - York without Walls 2011-12
• Alzheimer’s Ireland - 2011-12
• Local Government Association - Ageing Well 2011 - 2012
• Age UK - Dementia Friendly Project 2012-13
• Age UK - Dementia Friendly Programme 2013 - 2015
• Alzheimers Australia - 2014 Awareness week tour

East London
Calderdale and Kirklees
Blackpool
Gloucestershire
Wirral
Solihull
Blackburn with Darwen
North Tyneside
West Cumbria
Wigan
Lancashire
Norfolk
Isle of Wight
Doncaster
Coventry

Delivery focus
Place
Voice of people with dementia
Networks
People
Resources

“The voices of people with dementia and their carers should be at the start and the heart of the process of creating dementia- friendly services. Finding out what people want and need from our services is vital”
Making local AGE UK mainstream services more dementiafriendly” AGE UK April 2013
• Blackpool have made a film with a person with dementia - now being used in staff training.
• West Cumbria ran an engagement day in Cockermouth.
• People with dementia are supported to meet with local council in
Kirklees
• East London worked with Older People’s reference group to help them better support members with dementia.

“Audits of premises and written materials showed that very small changes can result in significant improvements to accessibility for people with dementia”
(Including People with Dementia - Shaping Generic Services - AGE UK April 2012)
• Audits of four services in Coventry
• “Walk the patch” in Coventry
• Reworking of high-street premises in Kirklees and
Calderdale
• Walk-throughs in Blackburn
• Review of literature in most services

“People with dementia tell us that the most important feature of a dementia-friendly environment is the people with whom they came in to contact.
People make communities friendly”
Making local AGE UK mainstream services more dementiafriendly” AGE UK April 2013
We found:
Inappropriate referral to specialist provision or external support - mainly due to misunderstanding about dementia.
Some concerns among staff, volunteers and existing service users.

Awareness sessions delivered in Norwich, Wigan,
Doncaster.
SCIE materials being introduced or trialled in most services
“We learned that awareness-raising need not be resource-heavy, but does need to be targeted at the right people. We worked with Age UKs to produce matrices matching specific roles with existing training resources, so that the right people were targeted for training relevant to their role, making the training more effective”
(Including People with Dementia - Shaping Generic Services - AGE UK April 2012)

“Lots of other people are thinking about the need to become more dementia-friendly, including many of your strategic partners. By working with and supporting them, you could be making a valuable contribution to making the wider community more dementia friendly as well as getting support and learning to apply to your own services”
Making local AGE UK mainstream services more dementiafriendly” AGE UK April 2013
• Blackburn providing volunteers to local acute trust to support people with dementia in mainstream hospital settings.
• East London and Wirral working through local older people’s forums
• Wigan working with AS on joint engagement process
• Many links with local DAAs being made.

“The bottom line is how to change people’s thinking across the organisation – the message is simple: if we are for all older people then we must be dementiafriendly…….“This work needs buy-in from the organisation at a strategic level – and corresponding authority” participating Age UKs
Many participating Age UKs were making good use of existing internal resources to support the engagement of people with dementia in mainstream services
•Age UK West Cumbria are tapping into specialist staff expertise and involving them in training mainstream staff and volunteers.
•Age UK Kirklees and Calderdale are training and supporting
“dementia champions” to work with colleagues in each department and to speak up for the need to support people with dementia within mainstream services.

So…………
• Get management buy-in and commitment - linked to broader strategy and JSNA
• Appoint a lead - with authority.
• Ensure strong voice for people living with dementia.
• Have a strategy and action plan.
• Focus on key areas identified.
• Keep the profile high
• Review progress.
Adapted from Foundation criteria for the dementia-friendly communities recognition process - Alzhemers Society 2013

For more information:
Steve Milton
Innovations in Dementia Community Interest Company steve@innovationsindementia.org.uk
www.innovationsindementia.org.uk
01392 420076