Creating a dementia friendly village?

Fantastic day today.  A couple of months ago Jake and I went to the Cotswolds for two days to attend a course run by The Contented Dementia Trust (http://www.contenteddementiatrust.org/).  The course was amazing and was the beginning of a whole new way of living with dementia in this family and a desire to tell the world about the strategies we learnt and the fact that the diagnosis isn't the beginning of the end just a new way of living.  I'm discovering new facts every day about dementia in all it's differing forms and the most surprising has been that there are six people living in my small village with that diagnosis (out of a population of 147).  Who knew? I mentioned this to Penny Garner who is the driving force behind the Trust and she suggested that we could become the first dementia friendly village in the country.  To that end I agreed a date when Penny and her team could come up to Lincolnshire ('is it near Suffolk?' she asked - right side of the country but miles and miles away), organised a venue and sent out an email to friends in the village to see if they would be interested.  Penny had said that it would be ok if we could get a minimum of 5 or 6.  We had 20 with a waiting list of 5.  The feeling of support was wonderful and the day was so useful.  The general opinion was that Penny should be on the stage but also, and more importantly, the sense was that we can do this as a village.  People will know what to expect but also what's expected of them.    There was such a positive vibe about the whole event and such a feeling of support from everyone who attended.  Can't wait to see where we go from here.

Comments

Sarah H said…
A great session from Penny - really useful. I learned a lot! Definitely going to get the book.
Loving the blog - you're a genius at writing, my friend.
Lesley said…
Fantastic! Glad it went so well - love the idea of everywhere being dementia-friendly!
Lesley said…
Fantastic! So glad it went well - love the idea of everywhere being dementia-friendly!