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Summary

Through its engagement with older people with dementia and their carers, the Elders Council identified a gap in the opportunity for people with dementia to participate in everyday social activities. The Elders Council heard about a cinema in another part of the UK that had developed a programme of film screenings for people with dementia, and approached a local cinema to see whether they would be prepared to develop a similar offer. The Tyneside Cinema welcomed the approach and appointed a project manager to work with them to develop a programme. A partnership group was established to oversee the project, drawing in expertise from people with dementia and their carers. A local philanthropic trust awarded the project a small grant for the development phase of the project, as the intention is that the screenings should become self-financing and part of the cinema’s mainstream offer. A comprehensive survey was produced and widely circulated to gather views from people with dementia and their carers to establish the level of interest in a special programme, and what type of support people might need to participate. A comprehensive audit of the cinema was done to determine how to make the cinema more accessible to people with dementia. All the front of house staff received dementia awareness training.The screenings started in July 2015 with a programme of musicals. 40 people attended the first screening. The programme is being evaluated by researchers from Newcastle University.

Website: https://www.tynesidecinema.co.uk/whats-on/dementia-friendly-cinema

Key facts

Main target group: Older people in general

Other target group(s): Older people with dementia and their carers

Desired outcome for older people:
Build and maintain relationships

Other issues the Age-friendly practice aims to address:
  • Inequities

Other Issues: This project addresses the inclusion of people with dementia in mainstream activity.

Contact details

Name: Douglas, Barbara

Email address: barbara.douglas@qualityoflife.org.uk

Preferred language(s): English

Age-friendly practice in detail (click to expand):

Engaging the wider community

Project lead: Local authorities

Older people’s involvement: Older people were involved in the age-friendly practice at multiple or all stages

Details on older people’s involvement: Elders Council lead the way in demonstrating how older people can be involved in identifying issues of concern, and in participating in co-producing solutions. Their work provides an example of how to engage with older people which can be replicated by different services and different cohorts of people.

Moving forward

Has the impact of this age-friendly practice been analysed: No

Feedback:
Age Friendly City is a long term strategic change agenda. It is a challenge to find ways of engaging partners, particularly when there are immediate pressures, exacerbated by austerity. Identifying and publicising examples of small, effective changes can help to build confidence and commitment to the agenda.

Expansion plans:
We are constantly identifying opportunities to introduce the concept of how the city can adapt to demographic ageing into policy and service development. We do this by identifying an issue of concern e.g. ageing workforce and then seeking out key partners to engage in developing a strategic approach to raising awareness of the issue and jointly developing solutions through new policy, new services or new ways of working.

Looking back

Reflections:
Age-friendly is a complex agenda often associated exclusively with older people. It has taken us time to develop a narrative which focuses on how the city is adapting to demographic ageing and to understand what that means for the infrastructure, services and all citizens. Having a strong narrative and vision from the outset, might have helped us to engage more effectively with partners.

Challenges:
Age friendly is such a broad and complex agenda, it is challenging to identify and make progress in a way which delivers real change to the infrastructure, systems and services in the city, rather than short term projects which may not deliver sustainable change. We have benefitted from strong political leadership in championing ‘age friendly city’ and we have worked hard to develop a strong and diverse partnership to champion and drive change.