National charities
Alzheimer’s Society
A very comprehensive website with help sheets and factsheets about nearly every aspect of caring for someone with dementia. It also offers online support. Dementia Connect Support Line 03331 503456. Beaconsfield branch 01494 670909.
Dementia UK
A helpful website. The charity provides some areas with Admiral nurses to support families. Dementia Helpline 0800 888 6678.
Dementia Adventure UK
This organisation provides fully-supported holidays and helps people with dementia to retain a sense of adventure by getting outdoors and connecting with nature.
Rare Dementia Support UK
RDS provides information, guidance and peer support for people living with rare forms of dementia such as Lewy Body Dementia and Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD).
Local dementia-friendly clubs and resources
Do you worry that the person you are supporting with dementia may wander off? Are you worried about how you might find them?
Thames Valley Police are often contacted to try and find such a person where relatives are frightened and distressed. There is an opportunity to register your parent’s details beforehand that makes it much simpler and easy to find them. It is called the Herbert Protocol. Now this has been joined up with MedicAlert and the McLay Dementia Trust are providing the first year completely free.
For more information visit:
medicalert.org.uk/safe-and-found
Buckinghamshire Dementia Roadmap
The Buckinghamshire Dementia Roadmap provides high-quality information about the dementia journey alongside local information about services, support groups and care pathways.
Carers Bucks
This organisation supports the health and wellbeing of all unpaid carers in Bucks. It has produced an excellent Emergency Care Plan template which you can find on Emergency-Plan.pdf (carersbucks.org).
Princes Centre, Princes Risborough
This organisation provides day care for people living with dementia.
Hub Care Support
This organisation introduces you to fully trained, QCAS approved independent Personal Support Assistants. You choose who you want to provide your support, what support you need and when.
Quality Care Approval Scheme
This organisation brings peace of mind to those receiving care from an Independent Personal Assistant (carer).
Lindengate Memory Pathways, Wendover
Located in Wendover, next to Dobbies Garden Centre, Memory Pathways is for anyone living with memory loss, or mild to moderate dementia and their carers. The sessions run between 10.30am and 12.30pm on the first, third and last Fridays of the month. The group provides the opportunity to meet up with people in similar situations to enjoy nature-based activities, make new friends, have a relaxing and stimulating time and get support. At each session, there are seasonal nature-based activities, arts and crafts, singing, reminiscing, poetry and more. For initial enquiries, please email…
Road Farm, Great Missenden
Located off the A413 between Wendover and Great Missenden. For ‘Care Farming’, people facing various challenges, including dementia, may join us for the day (10.00am to 3.00pm) or half-day (10.00am to 12.45pm or 1.00pm to 3.00pm as suits) to be involved in various activities around the farm.
St Mary’s Church Memory Trail (coming soon!)
Wendover Dementia Support has liaised with the Chiltern Arts Society in producing a memory-friendly trail around St Marys Church, Wendover. Small groups of people with dementia and their carers will be supported in following the trail around the church with volunteers from the Monday Club Café. A specially designed brochure with background music and hymns will support this initiative commencing 2022.
Why the church? The reason for choosing the Church as a Memory Trail is that many people with failing memories are of an age that would have involved them with churches from early childhood and on through later years. It is designed to encourage tactile and sensory activity.
Wendover Dementia Action Alliance (WDAA)
WDAA has been instrumental in highlighting dementia in the local community over the last few years. Their main purpose has been to encourage awareness and educate people, especially in Wendover organisations and businesses. Dementia-friendly training has been organised for many shops, the parish council and churches and a ‘walkabout’ highlighted physical parts of Wendover that needed attention for the more vulnerable residents. They were also successful in gaining funding for the OMI projector (known as the Magic Table) which is finally, after the pandemic, being rolled out for use in the village by many different organisations, including Wendover Dementia Support (WDS). As WDS has expanded, the role of the WDAA has taken more of a back seat and their Chair, Sian Chattle, has become a trustee of WDS to carry on the good work WDAA initially started.
Useful Videos
'My Dad & Dementia' with John Stiles
The importance of carer wellbeing: Tips and strategies for carers
'Let's talk about grief' with Dr Gemima Fitzgerald