Dementia Friendly Keighley receives funding to expand support for diverse communities
Funding from NHS Charities Together will benefit ethnically diverse communities in Keighley through tailored and culturally appropriate support for people with dementia and their families.
Dementia Friendly Keighley will receive £75,000 funding to further develop their existing work that has been changing the way communities in Keighley think, talk, and act about dementia. The funding bid was supported the Act as One health and care partnership for Bradford District and Craven.
The funding will be used to recruit a minority ethnic project worker to engage with communities, encouraging them to access early intervention, awareness events and support culturally appropriate home-based assessments and rehabilitation. This will build on existing work undertaken by Meri Yaadain, a project set up in 2006 to explore the impact of dementia on South Asian families with health support provided by Bradford District Care NHS Foundation Trust.
A community coordinator will focus on increasing community engagement with the services available to them, raising awareness of dementia, understanding the barriers people face when accessing services, and encouraging people to seek early intervention and support.
The funding will support additional home-based occupational therapy that will provide tailored consultations and support including self-management and education for people living with dementia as well as their family network.
Read more
Julie Lintern, Manager for Dementia Friendly Keighley, said: “Dementia Friendly Keighley has made great strides in developing culturally appropriate services for the communities we serve. This funding will help us build on this work including a specific community engagement role that will help us in our efforts to engage with people so they know how they can access support. In addition we will be able to improve home-based care that should reduce the need for people to be admitted to hospital as they and their families are more confident in managing their health at home.”
Rob Aitchison, Chief Operating Officer at Airedale NHS Foundation Trust and Senior Responsible Officer for the Act as One Ageing Well Programme, added: “We are really pleased that NHS Charities Together has funded this programme of activities. We know that Dementia Friendly Keighley, Meri Yaadain and our other partners have made significant progress to ensure people understand dementia, know how to access care and help the health and care system understand where there may be gaps by sharing feedback from local communities. This funding will go a long way towards addressing some of the issues that have been identified by our partners and our colleagues.”
The NHS Charities funding is being targeted at supporting work in tackling health inequalities across the area, through delivering grassroots help to those with long term health conditions and people most at risk or experiencing poor health outcomes and reduced life expectancy. The funding will also be targeted at reducing inequalities for people most affected by the direct and indirect impacts of COVID-19.
Dementia Friendly Keighley is playing a vital role in creating such a supportive community and awareness of dementia, by working towards becoming a dementia friendly community, more information can be found by visiting https://dementiafriendlykeighley.org.uk
NHS Charities Together is the national charity caring for the NHS, for more information please visit https://www.nhscharitiestogether.co.uk/