On Monday 24th October, Dementia Matters Here(fordshire) hosted a Dementia Festival at Saxon Hall, Hereford, as part of their Herefordshire Dementia Voices project. The aim was to raise awareness of dementia, help the public get a better idea of what support is available across Herefordshire, and also connect different professionals and organisations. At the Association for Dementia Studies (ADS) we’re evaluating the Herefordshire Dementia Voices project (more on that later), so were happy to have a stand at the event alongside a whole host of other organisations – apologies to anyone I’ve missed!
- Alzheimer’s Research UK
- Broomy Hill Nursing Home
- CAMBUS
- Crossroads Together, Carer Links
- Dementia Matters Here
- Falls Prevention Service, Wye Valley NHS Trust
- Gemma Moore
- Healthwatch
- Hereford Café Hub
- Hereford Community Farm
- Herefordshire and Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust
- Herefordshire and Worcestershire Integrated Care Board
- Herefordshire Carers
- Herefordshire Football Association
- Herefordshire Veteran Support Centre
- Herefordshire Voluntary Organisations Support Service
- Herefordshire Wildlife Trust
- Morrison’s Community Champions
- Rachel Freeman
- Ross Meeting Centre
- Talk Community, Healthy Lifestyles
- Young Dementia Herefordshire
After being formally opened by the Deputy Mayor of Hereford, there was a steady stream of people attending the Dementia Festival until early afternoon and a good level of interest in all of the stands and activities on offer. These included a Dementia Friends session, singers Richard and Steve, a Singing for the Brain session, tea dance and raffle, as well as smaller activities on individual stalls.
Our ‘Making your garden dementia-friendly’ booklets went down well, and we talked to quite a few people about Meeting Centres, helped by the fact that Ross Meeting Centre had a stand and a few members from Leominster Meeting Centre came along too. There was a lovely feel to the event and it was a great opportunity for networking and helping to raise awareness of the dementia support available. We definitely learnt a lot!
The event was also good timing from our point of view as we’re just launching a survey as part of evaluation of the Herefordshire Dementia Voices work and starting to advertise our final workshop which is due to take place 1st December (also at Saxon Hall!). If you have been involved in the Herefordshire Dementia Voices project in any way – or are based in Herefordshire but haven’t heard of the project – and would like to be involved in either activity, the details are here:
There will also be the opportunity to be part of a small focus group to explore some of the areas from the survey in greater detail, so if you would be interested in getting involved please contact j.bray@worc.ac.uk
Thanks to Dementia Matters Here for organising a great event.
Connect with ADS on twitter @DementiaStudies and on Facebook @adsuow
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