Founders of the Forest of Dean Dementia Action Alliance

Lena Maller

Acting Chair and Founder of

Dementia Action Alliance

Email:

lena.maller

@publicagroup.uk

Andrew Morgan-Watts

Founder

Claire Smeeth

Founder

Email:

claire.smeeth

@crossroadsglos.org.uk

Dementia Friendly Community Enablers

Funding for the Dementia Friendly Community Enablers originally came from the DCLG (Department of Communities and Local Government, now the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG).

The aim was to reach into the Forest community; their roles were to have as many conversations with as many people as they could about dementia and to deliver as many dementia awareness sessions as possible – informing, enabling, inspiring and empowering the community to “turn their understanding into action.”

After the initial year subsequent funding came from the Gloucestershire Clinical Commissioning Group and the County Council underspend.

Covid had a huge impact on the end of the programme but the team did go online and continued to deliver awareness sessions but were able to open this out to the whole of Gloucestershire.

Pre covid we had realised that having a proactive DAA in the Forest was great but there needed to be more consistency around the county and we had already started to share our knowledge, experiences and resources around the county. The Cheltenham DAA formed as a result of this work.