The BME Dementia Service has had another busy and successful year which has included a number of diverse pieces of work, including: delivering one-to-one case management; facilitating the Dementia Café; awareness raising sessions; developing the work of Dementia Champions; raising awareness in Touchstone and working in partnership with the Alzheimer’s Society in Calderdale.
The key highlights for the year were:
- Delivered 17 awareness talks to 260 people from BME communities.
- Supported 52 people with dementia and their carers.
- Promoted the service at various events/conferences, including local radio stations.
- Published articles on dementia within BME communities, in local newspapers including Asian Express and Asian Sunday.
- In partnership with 3SpiritUK, we have created a resource on barriers faced by people living with dementia and their carers from BME communities.
The service runs a South Asian dementia café, ‘Hamari Yaadain’ (Our memories) once a month. The café’s members had an exciting year joint-working with other organisations, including West Yorkshire Playhouse. The members attended a dementia friendly performance of ‘Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’ and are featured in the Dementia Friendly Performance Guide by West Yorkshire Playhouse.
Service user feedback from recent questionnaires, including Touchstone’s annual service user survey highlights the positive impact of our work on our clients.
We have successfully set-up a Dementia Champions Group within Touchstone and each site has a nominated Dementia Champion. The champions help embed dementia friendly knowledge throughout Touchstone.
In partnership with the Alzheimer’s Society in Calderdale, we have successfully delivered our first year, raising dementia awareness within the South Asian community. We have:
- Delivered talks, including a Dementia Friends session to 70 people from BME communities.
- In partnership with local organisations, organised a BME Health Event.
