Occupational Therapy News OTNews March 2020 | Seite 43

DEMENTIA CARE FEATURE
‘‘
It is about finding
needs of the local population and those who have or
different ways within the
might develop dementia over a two-month period;
community to support the delivery,
• local awareness-raising about the needs of people with
dementia, challenging some of the misconceptions
take up and co-ordination of
about what it is like to live with dementia;
existing and new initiatives and
• targeted guidance and support to local services and
projects that help people to stay
businesses who are interested in becoming more
‘dementia friendly’;
well, prevent loneliness and social
• co-ordinating supermarkets to deliver a new kind of
isolation and help keep
calm or slow shopping morning;
the community connected,
• working with the local County Councillor and Chamber of
Commerce to look at the wider environment, for example
creating a better quality of
pavements;
life for all.
• working with a range of organisations to set up two Memory
Lane Cafés;
• creating a community calendar that enables people to know what is
going on locally; and
• on a wider front, working with partner organisations and people
needing low level support, for example people with dementia and
their carers, the Chamber of Commerce, innovators of technology,
voluntary organisations and churches, working together to serve their
communities together more effectively.
Developing our own community based solutions is a more sustainable
way forward, to ensure that we look at the wellbeing and social experience
of people living around us that engages with people’s real needs.
Solutions need to be shaped and co-designed by individuals,
families, carers and neighbourhoods. It is very encouraging to have a
group of people representing local churches, commerce, and arts and
leisure, coming together to work with local people and to design what is
needed with them.
OTnews March 2020 43
Rosemary Hurtley, director and consultant occupational therapist,
360Fwd, and Julia Pitkin, lead coach and trainer, Dementia Sense CIC,
email: [e-mail]/[e-mail] and
[e-mail]. Visit: www.smartcranleigh.org
organisations to promote wellbeing, healthy living and a better quality of
life for everyone within an ageing population.
It is about finding different ways within the community to support
the delivery, take up and co-ordination of existing and new initiatives
and projects that help people to stay well, prevent loneliness and social
isolation and help keep the community connected, creating a better
quality of life for all.
Dementia is one of several issues we need to address. As a growing
issue, it is estimated it will be affecting one million people in the UK by
2025 and two million by 2050.
We know this is a growing challenge here and in other places.
Communities need a paradigm shift with bottom up engagement to link
the community to health and social care so that the person has a more
consistent approach.
Some of the things we are doing in Cranleigh to support people living
with dementia include:
• engaging with individuals and community groups in a ‘Cranleigh
Conversation’ to create an understanding of the local