Dementia Friends

Dementia Friends is an initiative by the Alzheimer's Society to "change people's perception of dementia." It aims to transform the way society "thinks, acts and talks about the condition."

Several of our staff are already registered as Dementia Friends. This means they have committed to learn about what it means to live with dementia and then putting that understanding into action. These actions could be something as simple as telling a friend about the initiative and asking them to look at becoming a Dementia Friend.

We are now wanting to become more involved as a home, rather than just individually, in the Dementia Friends initiative. We are therefore registered as an organisation with Dementia Friends to make sure we are doing everything we can to ensure we are recognised as dementia friendly. Emilee has also agreed to be our Dementia Friends Champion. She will be taking part in a training session in November, which will then allow her to be able to run information sessions with staff, friends, families and organisations in the local community. To help give Emilee an idea of what the information sessions involve and to also allow our staff to see what is involved, we have registered for one of the current Dementia Champions to come in October to hold an interactive 45 minute session at Holly Bank. Once the date is confirmed, we will also open up this session to residents' friends and families. 

We have been successful in applying to join the Dementia Action Alliance. The application process involved creating an action plan committing to help improve the lives of people living with dementia. We can also work with other groups in the area to help with the Dementia Friendly Community status of Southport/Sefton. We are very excited to work on this and hope that we can help bring different groups together to better understand dementia. With this in mind, we are currently speaking with a local primary school to get them involved in helping develop a choir at Holly Bank. It will be very informal and fun. it is part of the "A Choir In Every Care Home" initiative which is being run by Live Music Now, Sound Sense and Canterbury Christ Church University. They have all worked together, investigating the growing evidence that music benefits older people and their carers, by helping to improve their mental wellbeing.

We are looking forward to working on all these initiatives and hope they will be of great benefit to Holly Bank and the local community.