Back in October Jess had the pleasure of working with the Horsham Central Social Prescribing team for a week.  After a few prior meetings it was decided to try 5 drop-in events spread over a week at various locations in and around Horsham.  The purpose of these events was to help spread awareness and knowledge around dementia.  Working with the Social Prescribing team allowed us to share more information and really gave the events a local feel.

We are aware that there are still some communities within West Sussex who are still unaware of the early symptoms but also unaware that once they have received a diagnosis there is support out there for both the person living with dementia but also the carer.  We wanted to get this information out into the community.

We started off the week in the Bridge Leisure centre in Broadbridge Heath, luckily it coincided with one of their Forever Active days.  Tuesday, we moved on to Hilliers Garden Centre where we set up in their café. Wednesday was a full-on day as we were in Swan Walk right in the centre of Horsham.  Thursday, we moved out of town to Leonardslee Gardens and then finished off the week at Waitrose.

We focused our time and were at each venue for a maximum of 3 hours per day and promoted the events for a few weeks before.  We think that this approach worked well as the events proved to be a huge success.  Over the 5 days we managed to have around 150 conversations with people. 

Being in the heart of the community enabled us to have these conversations in locations where people were comfortable talking to us.  We chatted about dementia, how to get a diagnosis, and what to look out for.  We also chatted to carers and family and friends. It also enabled us to let people know about the support that is available to them in the Horsham area.

We had wonderful feedback and below are some photos from our days out and about.

We would like to replicate these events around West Sussex and if you would like us to come along and hold such an event at your venue, or you would like to partner with us on these types of events please do contact us.  We would love to hear from you.