Action Plan

A4D is a charity founded in 2011 to empower people living with dementia through artistic stimulation. Partnering with arts organisations, we deliver challenging arts programmes for people with early-stage dementia and carers. Our website provides unique mapped national signposting of arts events for people living with dementia. We train arts facilitators from around the country in early-stage dementia awareness. (The 650+ trained to date will deliver arts events to over 12,000 people with dementia and carers in the coming year.) And we run biennial best practice conferences. A4D focuses on what people CAN achieve, often much more than they imagine.

Commitment 1 - Relating to:

The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care is calling for social prescription for the dementias. To help advance this personalized integrated health and social care process, and achieve direction to life-enhancing arts activity as pre- and post-diagnostic support, Arts 4 Dementia will host a conference “Towards Social Prescribing (Arts & Heritage) for Dementias” (16 May 2019). We are inviting experts in health and social care and social prescribing to present the process; and shall launch a volunteer creative befriender consortium, ArtsPALs, to support SP for individuals, matched by shared interests through linkworkers, to enjoy prescribed arts together.

 

How will your organisation achieve Commitment 1?

 

To attract health and social care delegates, we are holding the conference at the Wellcome Collection. As well as involving leading figures in NHS England, Public Health England and Care UK, we shall have dual presentations by linkworkers and the arts organisers to demonstrate their SP process, evaluation guidance and posters for non-presenters. All will be published with follow-up developments in our report for World Alzheimer’s Month September 2019. ArtsPALs (to Preserve Active Life), rather than pickup and collect, is an opportunity for weekly inspiration and experience together, to help preserve resilience in the community. We propose to hold roundtables for existing befriender organisations and a wide range of stakeholders, in the longer term, to set up an ArtsPALs website. Like NHS toolkits, dementia directories, meeting centres, memory and support hubs, the website would signpost to local befriender organisations with whom ArtsPALs register, to be recommended to individuals during dementia assessment and as post diagnostic support. We hope that initially, each consortium organization will signpost ArtsPALs through their website. Arts 4 Dementia will Initially, each consortium organization would signpost ArtsPALs on their website. Arts 4 Dementia will feature ArtsPALs as a news item and list it as a resource.

  • We have the right to continue with day to day and family life, without discrimination or unfair cost, to be accepted and included in our communities and not live in isolation or loneliness.

Commitment 2 - Relating to:

We will offer outstanding arts opportunities for people living with early-stage dementia in the community and their companions, to challenge and inspire them, providing a joyful; shared experience with their companions and increasing confidence and sense of purpose in the community.

 

How will your organisation achieve Commitment 2?

 

We will partner with arts organisations to offer outstanding arts workshops, whose teams with talented facilitators we will train, to inspire and stimulate people living with early-stage dementia and their companions, with the aim that the workshops may be continued beyond our initial involvement.

  • We have the right to continue with day to day and family life, without discrimination or unfair cost, to be accepted and included in our communities and not live in isolation or loneliness.

Commitment 3 - Relating to:

We will train 100 arts facilitators from around the UK in early-stage dementia awareness and empower them to give their own challenging, respectful workshops for people affected by dementia in the community and their companions. This will enable thousands more people with dementia in the community to access arts opportunities nearby, (The 660 facilitators trained to date will deliver arts events to over 12,000 people affect by dementia over the next year).

 

How will your organisation achieve Commitment 3?

 

We will identify and partner with arts organisations who will host six training days for their own teams and others. We will work with training specialists Dementia Pathfinders who together with us, will deliver the training.

  • We have the right to continue with day to day and family life, without discrimination or unfair cost, to be accepted and included in our communities and not live in isolation or loneliness.