“This is a beautiful community – I felt immediately welcomed and comfortable” said Ronald Amanze, addressing the audience in the opening session of NAPA’s Year of Connected Communities Conference in London on 6 June 2023. He and his close friend Christine Maddocks (both are living well with dementia) answered the question from Hilary Woodhead, NAPA’s…
Alzheimer’s Society has been named as one of the UK’s top employers in the Sunday Times Best Places to Work 2023 survey. The charity scored highly for employee engagement and workplace happiness based on anonymised employee feedback. Overall engagement score was 86%, 13% above the industry average, 89% expressed confidence in management, while job satisfaction…
Eminent historian Professor Joanna Bourke recently gave a lecture on the cultural history of dementia now available online, in which she looks at how it has evolved from being considered a “normal part of ageing” to being considered “a disease that demands a cure.” She argues for a more open attitude to cognitive difference and…
Engaging Dementia’s online 15th annual International Dementia Conference took place on 25 and 26 May. The conference featured over 20 speakers across two days, with a particular focus on topics of direct interest to those living with dementia and their family carers. Day one focused on local communities, resources for family carers, and receiving care…
A public engagement event on Monday 26 June in London will be an evening of South Asian music and dance as a response to issues of memory and identity. Naaheed Mukadam, Alzheimer’s Society senior research fellow at UCL, worked with dance and music artists to put together the show in order to combat stigma around…
All the benefits of the arts in care are charted in a new report researched and written by Dr Hannah Zeilig and Millie van der Byl Williams. It looks in particular at the health and social impacts of “Our Day Out”, a programme of creative workshops run for older people in Norfolk over the past…
A week-long celebration of the arts in care will culminate in the National Day of Arts in Care Homes (#AICH2023) on September 24. This annual event, launched by the National Activity Providers Association (NAPA), focuses on creativity in care settings and the ways in which this supports health and wellbeing. Care providers and partners such…
A podcast and video published to mark Dementia Action Week explores the skills of storytelling and listening as a way to connect with older people with memory loss. Produced by Royal Star & Garter, which runs care homes for armed forces veterans and their partners, the online learning tools were made following workshops and one-to-one…
Gardening for health charity Thrive has produced a garden action pack called Get Gardening Without a Garden. The pack, intended for people with dementia among others, gives tips on experiencing the wellbeing benefits of gardening without having a garden. There are sections on containers, window boxes, house plants and much more. Research by Thrive indicates…
Numbers of Admiral Nurses should be more than doubled if families affected by dementia are to receive the support they need. That is the view of Admiral Nurse charity Dementia UK, which launched the call for more specialist nursing capacity on International Nurses Day (May 12). “We hear time and time again from families who…