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Four Rivers Dementia Alliance

The 4RDA Blog

August - A Variety Of Tasks In Hand And Still Ongoing

1/9/2025

I have undertaken a variety of tasks were various things have been happening during August:

• I met with the councillor who is the designated lead for dementia friendly work at Shaugh Prior parish council (04/08/25) to discuss how they would like to make a start on working towards becoming dementia friendly. I am currently awaiting an update on this.

• I returned to South Brent District & Caring to deliver another awareness session to more of their volunteer team, some volunteers from another local charity and the public (04/08/25). This was once again, well attended and well received. I followed this up with one attendee by sending them some information they requested about dementia friendly signage guidance.

• I attended an essential content Dementia Friends update session (19/08/25). Dementia Friends is an initiative by the Alzheimer’s Society and the awareness sessions I deliver in the community are part of this so this was a necessary and very useful session.

• I continued to contact a variety of parish/village magazines and newsletters across the 4RDA area to request writing an article about the work of 4RDA and Dementia Friendly Parishes, to raise awareness and hopefully encourage some more people to get involved in 4RDA. I submitted an article to the Modbury Messenger (Due to be published in the September edition).

• The “working towards becoming dementia friendly” information pack I drafted for schools has now been edited and is ready to go to print. The retailer’s guide will be edited next. I have also continued to work on the draft guide for GP practices.

• I started mapping community resources and attractions that could be approached re: becoming dementia friendly (An action agreed at a previous 4RDA meeting). This will continue until all parishes have been researched.

A few other things in the pipeline going into September and beyond:

• When I have completed drafting the dementia friendly guide for GP practices, I will start working on one for care homes.

• I will be submitting an article about the work of Four Rivers and Dementia Friendly Parishes Around the Yealm to Bigbury & Ringmore News for their October/November edition.

• I will be attending a Four Rivers meeting (03/09/25) and an Erme & Yealm Caring Alliance meeting (17/09/25) to update on the work of both the Four Rivers Dementia Alliance and Dementia Friendly Parishes Around the Yealm.

• I will be meeting 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 AGM (01/10/25).

• I am booked to attend a Modbury parish council meeting (07/10/25) to talk about the work of 4RDA and the support available to become a dementia friendly parish council and village.

July - A Multitude Of Tasks In Hand And Ongoing

31/7/2025

During July, I have been working on a few different things:

• Following on from attending Kingston’s parish council meeting in June, I returned to the village to carry out a dementia friendly building assessment of the reading room, with one of the committee members (21/07/25). My written report has been discussed with the other committee members and they plan to implement as much as is practicable.

• I attended the Global Plymouth Launch Event for Phase 2 at the University of Plymouth (16.07.25) with my information stand. The event was about bringing together the commercial and third sector. I did not get the opportunity to speak as planned but nonetheless, the event was a great opportunity to network with other organisations present and let them know about the work of both 4RDA and Dementia Friendly Parishes Around the Yealm.

• I attended the South Hams District Caring Alliance meeting at Follaton House, Totnes (23/07/25) and gave an update about the work of 4RDA and Dementia Friendly Parishes Around the Yealm. Again, it presented the chance to start forming connections with a few of the great variety of organisations that were present.

• I attended the Yealmpton Show (30.07.25) with my Dementia Friendly Parishes Around the Yealm colleagues. Our information stand also included 4RDA information as the show always attracts a lot of footfall so is a terrific opportunity to promote the dementia friendly approach.

• I contacted a variety of parish/village magazines and newsletters across the 4RDA area to request writing an article about the work of 4RDA and a Dementia Friendly Parishes, to raise awareness and hopefully encourage some more people to get involved in 4RDA. I submitted an article to Kingston Parish Newsletter (Due to be published in the August edition) and one to Ugborough Parish News (Due to be published in the September edition).

• The “working towards becoming dementia friendly” information packs I drafted for schools and for retailers are currently both being edited and they will then go to print in early August.

Other things in the pipeline are:

• My work on writing an information pack for GP practices has started and will continue throughout next month.

• I will be meeting with the councillor who has recently become the designated lead for dementia friendly work at Shaugh Prior parish council (04/08/25) to discuss how they would like to make a start on working towards becoming dementia friendly.

• I will be returning to South Brent District & Caring to deliver another awareness session to more of their volunteer team (04/08/25). This session will also be open to the public.

• I will be submitting articles about the work of 4RDA and Dementia Friendly Parishes Around the Yealm to Ugborough Parish News and Modbury Messenger for their September editions and Bigbury & Ringmore News for their October/November edition.

June And Lots Of Things Have Been Going On

30/6/2025

• I met with Emily Damant, an Admiral Nurse (02/06/25). I informed her about the work of 4RDA and Dementia Friendly Parishes Around the Yealm and also about the key dementia support agencies in Devon and Plymouth. This was so that she could link up with them and let them know about the free Admiral Nurse clinics which are running in partnership with Nationwide Building Society branches throughout the UK (There is one in Plymouth approximately every three months-details in the news section of the 4RDA website).

• I attended Cornwood’s parish council meeting (03/06/25). Cornwood have already made a start on their journey to becoming a dementia friendly parish, with their walking route, bench and some signage. I shared the 4RDA information pack for parish council’s and outlined the other types of support we could offer.

• I attended Kingston’s parish council meeting (19/06/25). They commented that there was a need for the input and that in the future they would be back in contact for advice and support.

• I met with Councillor Crystal Cao (16/06/25) who is a councillor for town council and also sits on their community engagement committee. Crystal will be supporting councillor Victor Abbott with working towards making Ivybridge dementia friendly. We discussed the work of 4RDA and Dementia Friendly Parishes Around the Yealm and dementia friendly communities in general. I also shared the 4RDA information pack for parish councils and the support we could offer. Crystal plans to discuss this with Victor and the town council.

• I delivered a dementia awareness session to a group of South Brent District & Caring’s volunteers and staff (24/06/25) which was well received. and am booked to deliver another one in early August as they have a large group of volunteers.


• I have drafted a “working towards becoming dementia friendly” information pack for schools and one for retailers which are in the process of being edited and printed.

Other things in the pipeline are:


• I will be attending the University of Plymouth’s International Awareness Day (16/07/25) with an information stand and will also be speaking at the event.

• I will be attending the South Hams District Caring Alliance meeting at Follaton House, Totnes (23/07/25) and will give an update about the work of 4RDA and Dementia Friendly Parishes Around the Yealm.

• As South Brent District & Caring’s have a large team of volunteers, I am booked to deliver another awareness session for them in early August.

• As mentioned in last month’s blog, I will work on compiling an information pack for GP surgeries next.

• I will be making contact with parish/village magazines across the 4RDA area to request writing an article about the work of 4RDA and Dementia Friendly Parishes, to raise awareness and hopefully encourage some more people to get involved in 4RDA.