May 25, 2019 - 1128 views
A new ‘Dementia Friendly’ steering group has formed to improve access to cultural venues for people affected by Dementia.
Building upon existing successes such as Theatr Colwyn’s highly popular Dementia-Friendly viewings, the new group is looking to see what else can be achieved.
The group was set up by staff from the Conwy Culture Centre and Venue Cymru and is open to any cultural venue in the county that’s keen to improve visitors’ experiences through better access, signage and improved activities.
It currently has representatives from Conwy Culture Centre, Conwy Library Service, Venue Cymru, Theatr Colwyn, Llandudno Museum, Penmaenmawr Museum and Penmaenmawr Community Library but is eager to welcome others.
Culture Centre Manager Helen Goddard said: “We’re aiming to create a Dementia-Friendly Culture Centre, so this group has provided a brilliant sounding board for sharing ideas and joint planning.
"It’s been great to have the input from a range of health professionals and the Alzheimer’s Society for our new handling collection, for example.”
Cllr Julie Fallon, Mental Health Champion for Conwy County Borough Council said: “I’m delighted to be supporting this group, which is coming up with some great ideas for enabling access to people affected by Dementia in Conwy County including providing broader access to the Culture Centre’s reminiscence handling collections, which are a great resource available for loan throughout the county.”
The Culture Centre handling collection consists of 14 boxes of day-today objects from the 1940s to the 1970s.
The handling collection was brought to a memory café held at Llandudno Hospital this week as part of Dementia Action Week/ Llandudno Hospital was the first hospital in Betsi Cadwaladr Health Board to achieve Dementia Friendly status.
The memory café welcomed pupils from local Ysgol Ffordd Dyffryn who sang for patients and enjoyed exploring the collections with them.
Rachel Richards, BCUHB Dementia Support Worker said: “We’ve been involved in the development of the handling collection boxes and it’s been great to see their positive impact in the hospital setting.”
