184 - Dementia Friendly Communities Evaluation

Wigan Council is currently exploring the market for a provider to evaluate their ‘Dementia Friendly Communities’ initiative and provide a valuable contribution to the further development of interventions to create dementia friendly communities and enable people living with dementia to live better in their community.

The project focuses on involving people living with dementia, their families, carers and the wider community to be the decision makers for their dementia friendly community. By identifying ‘assets’ rather than focusing on problems, looking at innovative ways to identify a range of interventions and working together to create a community where dementia is understood and accepted.

Dementia Friendly Communities initiative aims to reduce social isolation, anxiety, potential crisis and exclusion by empowering people to share experiences and undertake social activities and to tackle the stigma of dementia by raising awareness across the Borough.

The ‘Dementia Friendly Communities’ initiative was funded for two years during which time additional resource has been secured to upscale selected projects across the Borough and identify and fill gaps to further enhance the existing interventions over the next two years.

We require the evaluation to be part of a dynamic process and the provider will be required to work in partnership with colleagues from Wigan Council, Wigan Borough Clinical Commissioning Group, 5 Boroughs Partnership NHS Trust Later Life and Memory Service, Alzheimer’s Society, those commissioned to deliver dementia friendly activities and people living with dementia and their families / carers who attend the dementia friendly communities activities.

The evaluation should be in line with the Foundation criteria for the dementia friendly communities’ recognition process that has been developed by Alzheimer’s Society in partnership with the Dementia Action Alliance.

In order to ensure a thorough retrospective and prospective evaluation of our ‘Dementia Friendly Communities’ initiative we would suggest that the following areas are included as a minimum:

• Effectiveness of the involvement of people living with dementia and their families/carers throughout the Dementia Friendly Communities process.
• Evaluate the projects impact on people living with dementia in terms of enabling them to live well with dementia.
• Evaluate the projects impact on families / carers of people living with dementia in terms of their health and wellbeing.
• Effectiveness of the initiatives overall within the resources available.
• Explore whether the project has delayed or reduced the need for more intensive support amongst people living with dementia and their families / carers
• Effectiveness of the project in reducing costs for health and social care services.
• An assessment of any additional benefits of the project.
• An economic evaluation, including cost benefit analysis and return on investment for the programme.