What does Dementia Action Week Mean to Us?
Zibiah Loakthar, our Cuimhne Coordinator writes:
Every May, individuals, families and organisations big and small mark Dementia Action Week.
People do this in all sorts of creative and practical ways.
This could be holding dementia friendly community activities, running awareness raising workshops, running information campaigns about choices we can each make to help promote health and wellbeing and reduce the likelihood of dementia.
We can challenge taboos and stigma around dementia, organise community walks and fundraising activities. We can take take time to listen to the voices of people with lived experience of dementia and their families, sharing testimonies and reflections and ideas for action on community websites and social media.
People living with dementia and their families, carers and community members can be actively involved in creative ways in planning and decision making.
We can each take action on dementia all year round.
Pause to think
Awareness raising days and weeks are useful to help focus attention, reflect on our collective action and pause to think about where we are at, where we may wish to travel next with our work and what resources we may need for the journey.
They also create some reflective space for us to think about the resources we may already have that we could share usefully with others. Action Weeks create a talking point amongst communities. They offer an opportunity for organisations to amplify voices and messages on social and health issues to the wider community and policy makers.
Dementia Action Week can act as a prompt, a catalyst for action, a welcoming call inviting new groups into our social movement of organisations taking action on dementia.
Policy tweaks
Organisations need not be specifically dementia focused or health focused organisation to take part in some meaningful way in dementia action. Any organisation committed to equality and inclusivity can take simple actions. For instance, it might be a good point to review your policies, practices or procedures. Could these be tweaked a little or radically adapted in order that organisational opportunities at all levels are more accessible to people living with dementia and to family carers.
Simple changes, for instance adjusting the time of an activity, can make a huge difference. Dementia Action Week can be a week where organisations take time to consult their community members about what is working well, what could be changed and to invite people to share new suggestions and ideas.
This Dementia Action week our Cuimhne team at Irish in Britain encourage you to share actions you are taking to inspire and motivate others. If you are an organisation new to thinking about Dementia Action please do get in touch if you like any support from our team, for instance to talk through ideas of little things that you can do to make a big difference, or to set up a learning about dementia workshop for your volunteers, staff and trustees.
In Dementia Action Week 2022 our Irish in Britain Cuimhne team will be sharing our top ten tips for Brain Health. Please watch this space for our suggestions as we post them up and we would love to hear your ideas too!