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Four Rivers Dementia Alliance

The 4RDA Blog

November - It Has Been An Especially Busy Time

1/12/2025

It has been an especially busy time during November.

• I met with Councillor Margaret Grafton (Ermington Parish Council Dementia Friendly Lead) to talk about a starting point for working towards making Ermington a dementia friendly parish (03/11/25). We are planning to catch up again in January to put plans in place to move forward with discussed actions.

• I attended a parish meeting in Harford (05/11/25) to talk about the work of 4RDA and the support available to become dementia friendly. Two councillors agreed to be co-leads for dementia friendly work.

• I met with Suzi Garrod (Chief Executive and Dementia and Palliative Care Lead, Tumbly Hill Wellbeing Hub in Kingsbridge) to discuss memory cafes (25/11/25).

• Subsequent to the presentation I gave about my role with 4RDA and how the parishes are starting to work on becoming dementia friendly, with support, at the South Hams Dementia Forum in Totnes (15/10/25), South Dartmoor Community Energy, who were present, asked me to deliver a dementia awareness session to their team. I did this out in South Brent (26/11/25). They expressed interest in becoming a dementia friendly organisation so I am currently in the process of arranging a meeting to discuss this further with them.

• I had an information stand alongside my 4RDA colleagues at the Ivybridge Christmas Festival (28/11/25). This was a lovely community event and we spoke to and gave information out to a few people. I will be catching up with Councillor Crystal Cao (Ivybridge Town Council dementia friendly lead) in the new year to visit businesses in the town with her, share the dementia friendly guide for retailers and offer support to them to become dementia friendly.

• The dementia friendly guide I wrote for schools has now been printed. The guide for retailers is still currently being edited before going for printing. I have also completed the draft of the dementia friendly guide for GP practices which is going to be edited next.

A few other things in the pipeline are:

• I will be attending the Erme and Yealm Caring Alliance meeting in Ivybridge (10/12/25) and will give an update on the work of both 4RDA and Dementia Friendly Parishes Around the Yealm.

• I will be attending the 4RDA meeting (15/12/25) to give an update as above.

• I will start drafting an information pack for the care sector.

• I am booked to attend Modbury Parish Council’s Community Engagement Committee meeting (13/01/26) to discuss ways of starting to work on making Modbury more dementia friendly.

October - A Flurry Of Meetings And Presentations!

27/10/2025

October has been a flurry of meetings and presentations.

• I co-delivered a workshop about dementia friendly communities with Liz Hitchins, Four Rivers Chair and Ian Sherriff BEM, Academic Partnership Lead for Dementia, University of Plymouth (01/10/25) at the Devon Association of Local Councils AGM at Exeter Racecourse. I spoke about what inclusive dementia friendly communities are, the challenges that people living in rural areas with dementia face in accessing support and the work of Dementia Friendly Parishes Around the Yealm and 4RDA in helping to meet those challenges. The workshop was received positively by all those attending.

• I met with Liz Hitchins and Katie Chaplin (Teignbridge CVS) to discuss making dementia a focus of the next South Hams District Caring Alliance meeting as several people that had attended the previous meeting, said they would like to know a bit more about dementia. I was asked to put together a presentation about how to make organisations dementia friendly.

• I met with Melanie Ford (Older Persons Community Builder) who works in Plymouth, to give her some information and ideas on making spaces and groups more dementia friendly (06/10/25).

• I attended a parish council meeting in Modbury (07/10/25) to talk about the work of 4RDA and the support available to become a dementia friendly parish council and village. The chair asked me to attend a community engagement committee meeting so that ideas for Modbury could be discussed further. Currently I am waiting to hear back from the parish council re: dates for such a meeting.

• I met up with Emma Hughes (Admiral Nurse) to help her to connect with the 4RDA again and get an update about what is going on as her workload has meant she has not been able to attend any of the meetings for a while (13/10/25).

• I attended the South Hams Dementia Forum meeting (15/10/25) and did a presentation about my role within 4RDA and how the parishes are starting to work on becoming dementia friendly, with support. Subsequent to this I have had a request from another organisation that attended; to deliver an awareness session for staff-Currently I am awaiting hearing back from them about a potential date.

• Following on from the last 4RDA meeting (15/09/25), I met with Nicholas Hill (care home provider manager) to discuss potential ways to improve dementia services across their three care homes in Ashburton, Ermington and Plymouth and I offered to support with lots of it e.g. awareness sessions for all staff (and to offer to relatives), dementia friendly premises assessments of the homes, provision of supportive signposting information, making written materials available in a dementia friendly format. I am currently waiting to hear back about how they wish to move forward with this.

A few other things in the pipeline going forward into November are:

• I will be delivering a presentation about ways to make organisations dementia friendly at the South Hams District Caring Alliance meeting in Totnes (28/10/25).

• I will be meeting with Councillor Margaret Grafton (Ermington Parish Council) to talk about a starting point for working towards making Ermington a dementia friendly parish (03/11/25).

• I am booked to attend a parish meeting in Harford (05/11/25) to talk about the work of 4RDA and the support available to become dementia friendly.

• The dementia friendly guide I have written for schools has now gone to print. The guide for retailers is currently being edited and I am working on finishing the draft of the dementia friendly guide for GP practices. After that, I will begin working on one for the care sector.

September - More Tasks In Hand And Spreading The Word

30/9/2025

September has been a bit quieter in terms of meetings but still lots of things being worked on!

• I submitted an article about the work of Four Rivers and Dementia Friendly Parishes Around the Yealm to Bigbury and Ringmore News which was for their October/November edition. However, the editor advised that due to a huge amount of local events for that issue, they were unable to include the article but would put it in the next one (December/January).

• The same article was submitted to the Diptford and North Huish Parish News and has been printed in their September issue.

• I attended a Four Rivers meeting (Which was rescheduled from 03/09/25 to 15/09/25) to update on the work of both Four Rivers and Dementia Friendly Parishes Around the Yealm. Resulting from that, a care home provider manager asked for some information/support re: improving their dementia services. I am currently waiting to hear back re: a suitable meeting date for this.

• I attended an Erme and Yealm Caring Alliance meeting (17/09/25) to update on the work of both the Four Rivers and Dementia Friendly Parishes Around the Yealm.

• I met with Liz Hitchins, Four Rivers Chair and Ian Sherriff BEM, Academic Partnership Lead for Dementia, University of Plymouth (10/09/25) to plan the content of the workshop on dementia friendly communities that we will be delivering at the Devon Association of Local Councils (DALC) AGM (01/10/25). I also created slides for my part of the presentation.


• After attending the Alzheimer’s Society essential content Dementia Friends update session back in August, I also discovered that there had been updates to the resources to be used with children and young people. To reflect these changes, I had to make a few amendments to the final edit of the “working towards becoming dementia friendly” information pack I drafted for schools. It is now ready to go to print.

• I continued mapping community resources and attractions that could be approached re: becoming dementia friendly across the Four Rivers catchment area. As the area is a large one, this will be an ongoing piece of research for a while.

A few other things in the pipeline are:

• I will be meeting with Liz Hitchins and Katie Chaplin, Teignbridge CVS (06/10/25) to discuss dementia being a focus of the next South Hams District Caring Alliance meeting (28/10/25).

• I will be meeting with Melanie Ford, Older Person’s Community Builder, (06/10/25) to discuss how to make spaces and groups dementia friendly.

• I am booked to attend a parish council meeting in Modbury (07/10/25) to talk about the work of the Four Rivers Dementia Alliance and the support available to become a dementia friendly parish council and village.

• I will be attending the next South Hams Dementia Forum meeting (15/10/25) where I will be speaking about my role within Four Rivers Dementia Alliance and how the parishes are starting to work on becoming dementia friendly, with support.

• I am booked to attend a parish meeting in Harford (05/10/25) to talk about the work of 4RDA and the support available to become dementia friendly.

• I will complete the draft of the dementia friendly guide for GP practices. After that, I will begin working on one for the care sector.