Dementia Voice

This week Andrew (and Mark from the Stoke-on-Trent Community Advocacy project) went to Dementia Voice's monthly meeting at Fenton Town Hall which, by the way, has an excellent cafe and books to borrow. Dementia Voice is run by the local branch of the Alzheimer's Society and supports people with dementia, and their carers in Stoke-on-Trent and North Staffordshire.

Dementia Voice were among the first groups to get involved in our co-production work so it was great to re-establish our link with them. Their meetings are friendly, informal and wide-ranging (just the way we like them!)

The group talked about their reaction to the Alzheimer's Society's newest fundraising campaign, a hard-hitting one that focuses on the later stages and the impact it has on the person and their family. Everyone felt this was unnecessarily frightening, especially for people with a new diagnosis. We also had a great discussion about accessible letters for hospital appointments. Andrew's background is in working with adults with learning disabilities and the recommendations people made for accessible letters sound almost exactly like the basics of Easy Read information. Interesting how that works.