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Doncaster Dementia Action Alliance

What is a Dementia Friendly Community?

A Dementia Friendly Community is one in which people with dementia are empowered to have high aspirations and feel confident, knowing they can contribute and participate in activities that are meaningful to them.

Establishing a local structure is the key to the success and sustainability of creating a Dementia Friendly Community. A local Dementia Action Alliance is the recommended model as it enables the bringing together of individuals and organisations.

Our Aims

We want Doncaster to become a Dementia Friendly community in which people living with dementia and their carers feel confident, knowing they can access the support they need and participate in activities which are meaningful to them.

We aim to reduce the stigma and raise understanding of dementia through awareness raising activities, training and education to improve the services delivered locally so that people living with dementia are able to continue doing the things they enjoy within their own community for longer.

We aim to increase the number of people living with dementia who receive a diagnosis and for that diagnosis to be made earlier.

To do this, we need to bring together the whole borough in making a difference to those with living with dementia, including families and carers.

To achieve this, Doncaster working to become dementia friendly will focus on the following 10 key areas which are identified by the Alzheimer’s Society: Building Dementia Communities

Involvement of people with dementia
Challenge stigma and build understanding
Accessible community activities
Acknowledge potential
Ensure an early diagnosis
Practical support to enable engagement in community life
Community-based solutions
Consistent and reliable travel options
Easy to navigate environments
Respectful and responsive businesses and services

How the Alliance Works

Membership is open to any organisation seeking to make a difference to the quality of life for local people living with dementia. There are two types of membership, Pledge and Commitment:

Pledge (Pledge application form to be completed)

The pledge made by organisations will be:

To ensure that their employees have read the leaflet “Dementia: what is it and how can I help?” to give them at least a basic awareness of dementia
Preferably, the organisation will commit to their staff undertaking a Dementia Friend’s session or for at least one staff member to have done so.
To display the Doncaster Dementia Friendly Community logo and strapline

Commitment - (Action Plan to be completed)

The action plan will describe:

An organisation's role in helping improve the quality of life for people living with dementia and their carers.
What the challenges may be to delivering the actions set out in their Action Plan.
What changes they will make within their own environment to become more dementia friendly (as appropriate to their specific organisation).

In return, the Doncaster Dementia Action Alliance will supply a nationally recognised Dementia Friendly Community logo to be displayed by all organisations committing to their action plans and will also publicly recognise that commitment by including their details on the national Dementia Action Alliance website.

We will keep all members updated on further opportunities to access awareness-raising and training opportunities, as well as networking with others.