The 4RDA Blog
June 2026 - The Busy Times Have Continued Through This Month
1/7/2026
• In Ivybridge, I carried out some more dementia friendly premises assessments: One of the Ivybridge Town Council Offices (02/06/26) and one of the Watermark (This was done over two dates i.e. 08/06/26 and 15/06/26 due to the size of the building) with Councillor Crystal Cao. As always, I will be typing up reports for these with recommendations.• I also re-visited some of the businesses in the town to offer them the choice of two initial dates for their staff to attend a dementia awareness session-the first one of which was held on 29/06/26.
• I attended a parish council meeting in South Brent (15/06/26) and gave a presentation about how they could continue building on the work they have already carried out, to become a dementia friendly parish. They have a provisional plan in place but will be discussing this further at a future meeting.
• I attended an Erme and Yealm Caring Alliance meeting (24/06/26) and gave an update on the work of both Four Rivers (4RDA) and Dementia Friendly Parishes Around the Yealm (DFPY).
• I continued co-facilitating the fortnightly carer’s group at Tumbly Hill Wellbeing Hub in Kingsbridge (02/06/26 and16/06/26) with Suzi Garrod (CEO and Dementia and Palliative Care Lead).
A few other things in the pipeline are:
• I will continue visiting businesses in Ivybridge with Cllr Crystal Cao (This will be an ongoing piece of work) and I will be delivering another dementia awareness session which is open for any businesses to attend (13/07/26). I have also been asked by three businesses in the town to deliver a dedicated session for their staff teams- One of these is booked for (05/08/26) and I am in the process of arranging dates for the other two.
• The work supporting Tumbly Hill, Kingsbridge will continue.
• Alongside DFPY colleagues, I will be meeting with a delegation of students and their lecturers from Nanfang University in China (28/07/26) as part of a summer school in partnership with the University of Plymouth, to talk about the work of 4RDA and DFPY.
• When time allows, I will continue with writing dementia friendly information guides for different sectors -Currently, this includes doing more work on the mini-guide for funeral directors.
Nanfang College, Guangzhou and University of Plymouth Sign MoU to Strengthen Collaboration
May 2026 - Lots Of Progress Made This Month
1/6/2026
• I continued facilitating the fortnightly carer’s group at Tumbly Hill Wellbeing Hub in Kingsbridge (05/09/26 and 19/05/26) with Suzi Garrod (CEO and Dementia and Palliative Care Lead). The group has been renamed “Supporter’s Group” at the request of those attending because, as they explained, “You support us to support them”.
• I submitted my report of the village signage audit I carried out in Modbury last month, to the parish council community engagement committee (18/05/26).
• I carried out two dementia friendly premises assessments in Ivybridge: One of the Chapel Place Community Centre (11/05/26) with Councillors Victor Abbott and Crystal Cao and one of the Co-op Funeralcare (26/05/26). I will type up reports for them both with recommendations.
• I attended the Dementia Support South Devon Forum meeting at Ashburton (05/05/26). I made everyone attending, aware of the work of Four Rivers (4RDA) and also that of Dementia Friendly Parishes Around the Yealm (DFPY) and subsequently forwarded on electronic copies of all of the sector “how to become dementia friendly” information packs that we have produced so far, to the chair so they could be shared with everyone.
• I started working on a mini dementia friendly guide for funeral directors.
A few other things in the pipeline are:
• I will continue visiting businesses in Ivybridge with Cllr Crystal Cao (This will be an ongoing piece of work for some time), delivering dementia awareness sessions and dementia friendly premises assessments-The next one of these is planned for 01/06/26 and will be on the Ivybridge Town Council office and I will also be carrying out a dementia friendly premises assessment on The Watermark building (08/06/26).
• The work supporting Tumbly Hill, Kingsbridge will continue.
• I am booked to give a presentation at a South Brent Parish Council meeting (15/06/26) to outline how they can become a dementia friendly parish-They are already off to a very positive start by being the first parish in the 4RDA catchment area to install dementia friendly village signage.
• I will be attending the Erme & Yealm Caring Alliance meeting in Ivybridge (24/06/26) where I will give an update on the work of both 4RDA and DFPY.
• I will continue with writing dementia friendly information guides for different sectors -The mini-guide for funeral directors currently and then I will return to the one for the care sector.
April 2026 - Exciting First Steps Have Been Happening In Different Areas This Month!
1/5/2026
Exciting first steps on the dementia friendly journey have been happening in different areas this month!• Across April, I have continued visiting businesses in Ivybridge with Councillor Crystal Cao (Ivybridge Town Council designated dementia friendly lead) to make them aware of the work being done to make Ivybridge a dementia friendly community, leaving them the introductory letter and revisiting some of them to offer support to become dementia friendly. We will continue to do this until we have seen all of them. We are now starting to plan the first wave of awareness sessions and dementia friendly premises assessments to be offered.
• I started facilitating the new carer’s support group at Tumbly Hill Wellbeing Hub in Kingsbridge (21/04/26). I’ll be co facilitating this once a fortnight with Suzi Garrod (CEO and Dementia and Palliative Care Lead) for the first 6 months.
• I delivered a dementia awareness session to a group of Tumbly Hill Wellbeing volunteers (21/04/26).
• I carried out a village signage audit with two councillors who are part of Modbury Parish Council’s Community Engagement Committee meeting (27/04/26). I will be subsequently typing up a report for them with recommendations.
• I attended the 4RDA AGM (28/04/26) at Ivybridge Rugby Club and reported on what I have been working on over the past year.
A few other things in the pipeline are:
• I will continue visiting businesses in Ivybridge with Cllr Crystal Cao (This will be an ongoing piece of work for a while), delivering dementia awareness sessions and dementia friendly premises assessments etc.
• The work at Tumbly Hill in Kingsbridge will be ongoing.
• I will continue to support Ermington and Modbury (and any other parish council that wishes to move forward with becoming dementia friendly).
• I will continue writing dementia friendly information guides for different sectors (The Care Guide is in progress).