Cotman Housing Association
We are a Norwich based Housing Association providing housing across a range of tenures, including sheltered housing, and leasehold retirement properties. Our services are tailored to meet the needs of local communities. One third of our housing is dedicated older persons' schemes and many more older people live in our general needs housing stock. In partnership with Age UK Norwich we are providing a Sport England funded service “All About You” which aims to support and encourage carers, especially carers of someone living with dementia, to keep physically active. We also deliver the “Still on the Go” Sport England funded project to support and encourage older people to get active. We manage a small welfare fund for older people across Norfolk on behalf of the Josiah and Mary Brewster Charitable Fund. Our mission statement is "Meeting needs to create strong communities".
- Updated:
- 9 January 2020
- Location:
- East of England
- Sectors:
- Housing Sector
- Local Alliances:
- Norwich City Dementia Action Alliance
1. Action Plan
1. The National Dementia Declaration lists seven outcomes that the DAA are seeking to achieve for people with dementia and their carers. How would you describe your organisation’s role in delivering better outcomes for people with dementia and their carers?
Action Plan
1. The National Dementia Declaration lists seven outcomes that the DAA are seeking to achieve for people with dementia and their carers. How would you describe your organisation’s role in delivering better outcomes for people with dementia and their carers?
Our sheltered housing schemes offer safe, accessible accommodation to older people with low-level support on site. We encourage a number of regular social events which are organised by sheltered housing residents and volunteers. These include two lunch clubs per week, weekly coffee mornings and evening entertainments. People with dementia and their carers are welcome to come to these. It is very important to us that our communities are dementia friendly and a majority of our staff have attended a dementia friends session. We deliver All About You, a Sport England funded project for carers, especially carers of someone living with dementia. We also participate in strategic debate at meetings with specialist organisations such as Age UK, and promote their range of services to potential beneficiaries.
2. What are the challenges to delivering these outcomes from the perspective of your organisation?
1) We do not receive as many referrals as we would like for our All About You project. We have found it difficult to reach carers of someone in the early stages of dementia as they often do not come forward for services and may not identify themselves as a carer at this stage.
2) All About You is a time limited project and funding will cease in 2021.
3) Lack of awareness societally about dementia and consequent stigmatisation/ lack of community support
2. What are the challenges to delivering these outcomes from the perspective of your organisation?
NEW PLEDGES
Deliver All About You project. Provide one to one support and encouragement. Provide information about activities available. Match carers to volunteers to support them to take part in physical activity.
We will aim to support 60 carers including carers of people living with dementia in 2020 and 2021. We will offer a small group of 10 carers of someone living with dementia the opportunity to have an instructor come to their home to deliver 8 exercise sessions of their choice.
Work in partnership with Age UK Norwich and Active Norfolk to encourage more sports and leisure organisations to join the Dementia Action Alliance and improve their offer to people living with dementia and their carers
We will meet bi-monthly with Age UK Norwich and Active Norfolk to monitor take-up. We aim to double the take-up of sports and leisure organisations from 7 to 14 in 2020.
Work in partnership with Age UK Norwich to deliver an event in summer of 2020 to share good practice in dementia friendly services amongst sport and leisure organisations
The event will aim to learn whether sharing good practice at such an event actually improves practice on the ground. We will work with Age UK Norwich to follow up to “reality check” changes, including working with people living with dementia, their carers and volunteers to rate providers’ offers.
Member website
www.cotman-housing.org.uk2. Actions
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Raise Awareness of Dementia to Staff and Volunteers
Member of staff to complete Dementia Care Coaching Programme and meet with all staff teams in 2017 to deliver coaching and facilitate discussion.
- Status:
- Planning
2017 - Fourth Quarter Update
Our Support and Tenancy Sustainability Manager completed the Dementia Care and Coaching Programme through the Dementia Alliance. She has delivered an interactive session to all staff at Cotman in the summer of 2017, which prompted a good discussion. We've also hosted Dementia Friends sessions for staff and contractors. As a staff team, we participated in the Alzheimer's Society Memory Walk in September 2017 to raise awareness and fundraise.
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Promote our offer with NHS Staff Description
Undertake marketing campaign with Practice Managers regarding our service offer and highlighting link with Prevention agenda. Undertake pilot outreach presence at GP surgery.
- Status:
- Delivered
2017 - Fourth Quarter Update
We worked with Practice Managers at Lionwood Surgery and St. Stephen's Gate, Norwich. We delivered a pilot weekly presence in both surgeries from June to August 2017. Unfortunately, funding cuts meant we were unable to continue with this, but the links with the Practice Managers mean that we have created a sustainable network.
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Make our Service more Dementia Friendly
Review our existing literature, especially handbooks and leaflets to enhance references to dementia and the support which is available. Publicise that staff are dementia friends. Explore assistive technology offers and ensure staff are aware of products that can help support people to live well with dementia. Where possible, incorporate dementia friendly features in capital improvement programmes – for example, using colour contrast between doors and walls in blocks of flats
- Status:
- Being implemented
2017 - Fourth Quarter Update
We have installed a dementia friendly lift at our sheltered housing scheme in Norwich to ensure that the scheme is accessible to persons living with dementia. This significant capital investment reflects our committment to making Norwich a dementia friendly city.