Guests gather for official launch of Dementia Friendly Royal Borough project

A Dementia Friendly Royal Borough project aiming to bring everything under one roof to offer support to the dementia community was officially launched last week.

The project, funded by the NHS Frimley Integrated Care Board (ICB), was initiated after it was decided by Age UK Berkshire and its collaborators, including Alzheimers Dementia Support (ADS) to bring all the organisations together under one roof to provide support to those living with dementia.

Steve Sansom, Age UK Berkshire Dementia Friendly co-ordinator for the Royal Borough who is leading the project explained that there are about 2,700 people living with the condition in the Royal Borough and this figure is ‘set to keep growing’.

The official launch took place in the Braywick Theatre at Braywick Leisure Centre on Thursday, October 12 and saw about 80 people from various organisations attend.

Visitors spent time networking at the event and also took part in a dementia quiz.

Guest speaker Pam Warren, a lead volunteer for Alzheimers Dementia Support also delivered a talk about the experience of being a carer for someone living with dementia.

Attendees also welcomed three other guest speakers including Amy Stocker, access and inclusion manager at Royal Collection Trust, who discussed the launch of a new dementia café in the Learning Centre at Windsor Castle, Belinda Dixon, senior dementia care advisor at Optalis, who spoke of her team’s work, and Sarah Swift, manager for The Alzheimer’s Society in Berkshire who also discussed her team’s work.

Discussions on best practice concerning issues facing the dementia community in the Royal Borough in the next five years also took place.

As part of the project two dementia cafes have so far been launched in the Royal Borough, including the Royal Reminiscence: Dementia friendly mornings in the Learning Centre at Windsor Castle once a month on the last Wednesday of each month, and the new dementia cafe at The Fox & Castle pub in Old Windsor on the first Monday of each month.

The team will also be launching a carers group in the Ascot area and a new health hub (catering for dementia as well as other conditions) at The Wraysbury Hub in Wraysbury High Street.

Steve said: “I think we’ve noticed in the Horton, Wraysbury and Datchet areas, there’s isn’t such amount of support so that’s why we’re focusing upon getting a health hub up and running there so that we have full support for that particular area.”

He added that there may be people in the borough who might not use the Internet and may not know where to go or who to consult and so it is ‘very important to have such visible presence and easily accessible facilities’.