Involve people affected by long-term health conditions including dementia
Everything to do with any Dementia Friendly Compassionate Community initiative must be informed by the people they are set up to help:
- When developing activities, listen to and be inspired by the experiences of all people affected e.g. people with long-term health conditions, including dementia, their carers and families
- Encourage people to feel confident and competent to participate in society. Support them to feel part of the community by giving back to them their feeling of citizenship (letting them be involved in everything going on around them) and belonging to the community (allow them to be part of the decision making).
- Develop socially inclusive programmes and make your initiative inclusive for everyone, not just for people with a specific diagnosis like dementia.
The personal touch
One of the benefits of being a rural community is that personal relationships and connections already exist between many of the individuals and their neighbours, as well as those in neighbouring villages and towns. These connections lead to a greater understanding of an individual’s past, which can be of real benefit for people with long term health conditions like dementia.
For example a member of staff at a Wellbeing Hub recalled that one of the participants who is living with dementia had a particularly keen interest in golf – had indeed been a scratch golfer in his day – but had not played for some 5 years. Arrangements were made with the local golf course for him to play three holes one sunny morning.
Using two sets of donated golf clubs, DFC staff were astonished when he picked out a wood from the bag, teed off and hit the ball straight down the fairway. Not only that, but he then took a 7 iron and put that on the green and with 2 putts, got his par! This from a man who not only has dementia, but has also not played golf for such a long time.
When he was later asked ‘did you enjoy that?’, the smile on his face was priceless and then when asked ‘when did you last play?’, his reply, again with a huge smile, was ‘oh just last week of course …’ And moreover, he hadn’t lost his swing, which most golfers will agree is quite remarkable.