Last year we completed our ‘Get Real with Meeting Centres’ project, which was investigating the challenges that face community-based group support for people living with dementia – such as Meeting Centres – in keeping going long term.
This project has certainly informed us in our thinking about the role of such community initiatives in the dementia pathway, and in particular about how Meeting Centres in the UK can function going forward. But we also want to know what everyone else thought – i.e. those we work with and alongside.
It’s now more than 6 months since we held our big celebration event to mark the end of the Get Real project and share our results. At that event we unveiled three booklets aimed at three different audiences, as well as a series of videos on different topics, regarding what we had learnt in the project:
Booklets
- What you can do to help your Meeting Centre: Suggestions for people who attend Meeting Centres
- Keeping Meeting Centres going long term: Recommendations for people running Meeting Centres
- Sustaining Meeting Centres and similar community-led dementia support: Suggestions for health and care professionals
Videos
- Referrals and the dementia care pathway
- Reaching people and membership
- Carer benefit and engagement
- Venue and location
- External relationships and collaboration
- Internal relationships and working practices
- Finances and funding
Time for feedback
Now that a little time has passed, we want to ask people who have read and seen these for a little feedback on them – what they thought of them, how they used them, if they passed them on to anyone (and if so, who?), and what was most useful or less useful about them. This will help us to gauge any impact from the study and also inform how we do things in future projects.
If you came along to our ‘Get Real Celebration Event’ on July 12 last year – or if you have simply encountered these resources since – please take the time to let us know what you think by completing this short survey. We much appreciate it!
For more information on the Get Real with Meeting Centres project, please visit the dedicated blog site.
Connect with Meeting Centres on twitter @MeetingCentres