The 4RDA Blog
April Has Been An Interesting and Varied Month
29/4/2025
• I had an information stand and spoke at the National and International Perspectives of Dementia Conference at Home Park in Plymouth (11/04/25) about the challenges of rural dementia and ways to meet those challenges by the work of both Dementia Friendly Parishes around the Yealm and Four Rivers Dementia Alliance.• I visited Diptford (14/04/25) to carry out a dementia friendly building assessment on the village hall and have subsequently submitted my report.
• Currently, there is a dementia wellbeing centre being set up in Kingsbridge and I went out to meet Suzi Garrod (CEO) to offer support and advice around making the building dementia friendly by carrying out a building assessment (15/04/25). I am currently in the process of typing up the report.
• I have started work on creating “working towards becoming dementia friendly” information packs to share with various sectors of the community. So far, I have drafted out a pack for schools and retail will be next.
• Following on from attending Ugborough’s parish council meeting (12/02/25), they expressed a keen interest to take dementia friendly action and have a councillor designated to take the lead on this. I met him at the South Hams Dementia Forum meeting (16/04/25) and we are currently in the process of arranging a meeting to discuss how to start moving things forward.
• I attended Bickleigh Parish Council meeting (27/03/25) and after subsequently making contact with the parish council again, I am currently waiting to hear back from them about how they might wish to progress with the offer of support to work towards becoming dementia friendly.
Other parish council meetings booked:
• Ermington-I will be guest speaker at the annual parish council meeting (06/05/25).
• Harford-I had planned to attend their parish council meeting (07/05/25) but there was a mix-up with the date and I have been invited to attend their next meeting in November instead (Date to be confirmed).
• Sparkwell-I am booked to attend their parish council meeting (13/05/25).
• Cornwood-I will be visiting Cornwood with some colleagues to go along their dementia friendly walking route and see the special bench that has been installed (14/05/25). I am also booked to attend their parish council meeting (03/06/25).
• Kingston-I am booked to attend their parish council meeting (19/06/25)
Photographs of the National and International Perspectives of Dementia Conference (pdf)