‘A Celebration – The Forget-Me-Nots Managing Life with Dementia’

On Thursday June 20th, the Forget-Me-Nots, a DEEP group based in Canterbury, East Kent, held a one day event. The day was entitled ‘A Celebration – The Forget-Me-Nots Managing Life with Dementia’.
The day was funded and supported by DEEP as an opportunity to bring people together living with dementia from all over Kent. There were over 100 attendees and these included people living with dementia, their friends and family, employees of KMPT (Kent & Medway Partnership Trust) and others working with people living with dementia.
The day included speakers talking on the Neuroscience of Dementia, The Power of Mindfulness and the Legal issues to consider when living with dementia. Other contributors spoke of the lived experience of dementia and on various projects that the Forget-Me-Nots have been involved in. These included a photography project and a script writing project called Dreams and Visions. We also heard about a recent project, ‘The Dementia Allies’ when people recently diagnosed with dementia are allied with a volunteer living with dementia. In all, there were ten speakers living with dementia on the day.
The day was supported by DEEP, the Alzheimer’s Society and staff and volunteers from KMPT (Kent & Medway Partnership Trust). In addition, the days lunch and refreshments were sponsored by local supermarkets Morrison’s and Sainsbury’s.
This day was a ‘year in the making’ with meticulous planning and hard work by the working party. The working party consisted of members of the forget-me-nots group, volunteers, a representative from the Alzheimer’s Society and a psychology placement student. The working party was chaired by Clare Streeter, Volunteer Coordinator who also facilitated and led the day and successfully met the aims of DEEP to engage and empower those living with dementia
The day was evaluated as excellent and described as ‘informative and interesting’, ‘wonderful’, ‘a pleasure to attend’, ‘amazing and powerful’ and ‘a brilliant day’.