Culturally Sensitive Dementia Support Campaign

Aim

We are raising funds to create and develop much needed Culturally Sensitive services for people living with or affected by Dementia.

The Pearl Support Network is a not for profit organisation that is trying to raise funds and generate support to address the needs of members of the BME community who are living with dementia but are not able to find culturally relevant services through existing organisations. We aim to launch Culturally Sensitive Memory Cafés across the UK to provide specially developed supportive materials and activities in care homes, community centres, and appropriate venues for BME people living with or affected by Dementia and their carers.

A Memory Café provides a place where any of the public who feels that they or a person they know, may have a short term memory problem or are affected in any way by any form of dementia including Alzheimer’s, can drop in an talk to experienced volunteers or health professionals and/or get involved with any of the specially developed culturally sensitive activities. This is usually a free service which provides participants the opportunity to meet liked minded people, exchange experiences and enjoy themselves .

Why do we need to do this ?

Our mother who was living with Dementia for over ten years and died as a result of Alzheimer’s on the 28th of June 2016 at the age of 75, both myself and my brother tried to care for her during this period but found it very difficult. We had to do our best with what was available by way of support from mainstream organisations . The problem that we found was that these organisations did not have anything in place by way of activities of culturally sensitive support to cater for the BME community, this includes the Chinese, people of a South Asian background and even those from the Travellers community. As result, we decided to try and develop products, services, activities and other types of events that were culturally sensitive to help people live better with Dementia based on their cultural back ground.

What we are doing?

We have designed and developed prototype materials and services and are currently developing other materials for BME people living with Dementia and we are seeking support to further develop and distribute these products and services to vulnerable people across the UK. 

These products and services include :

• A range of Jigsaw puzzles that people could relate to based on their background and past experiences
• A range of picture bingo games using fruits and other items from a culturally sensitive perspective.
• A software program that consist of images, music and relative information to help carers to run culturally sensitive memory cafes even if they are not that familiar with certain cultures.
• A range of pop up banners featuring post 1950's memorabilia which acts as a stimulant for reminiscence and conversation.
• A culturally sensitive Dementia Training Manual and online package for organisations that are supporting persons affected by Dementia.
• A range of chair based exercise workshops and health programs for persons affected by Dementia from different cultural backgrounds.
• We are also developing Karaoke music tracks based on traditional folk music from a range of different cultures.

What we have done so far

Pearl Support Network launched the first pilot culturally sensitive Dementia Café for BME people and their carers, in partnership with Birmingham Museum Trust and Legacy WM.

The Memory Café was ran by trained volunteers with the support of health professionals. We provided support and information within a relaxed, friendly and stigma free environment. We also got positive feedback on our pilot programme of culturally sensitive events and activities that has been developed for both carers and the cared for.

The pilot project has so far delivered:

• 7 monthly memory cafes at Soho House Museum, third Friday of every month (April - October 2017).
• One outing to the Birmingham Reparatory Theatre
• 4 Pearl Memory Café events - 'pop up' memory cafes within the community
• Memory Box - a collection of post 1950's memorabilia for BME communities
• BME Dementia Resources - Photo’s, Jigsaw/Activities, Bingo, Roller Banner (for activities), USB stick (music), BME chair based activity programme,
• Dementia training manual and online training package for BME people with Dementia.
• A trip to a national celebration conference in London for BME people living with/or affected by Dementia.

We hope you will help us to help others live well with dementia and support us by making a donation and also sharing.

Thank you for reading this :-) 

This project successfully funded on 21st March 2018