Encouraging togetherness and learning in dementia care
MEETING CENTRES
A new Meeting Centre has opened in Tipton, West Midlands, run by one of our partner organisations Agewell and Murray Hall Community Trust, funded by the National Lottery Community Fund.
What is a Meeting Centre?
The initiative originated in the Netherlands over 20 years ago and has proved very successful, with over 120 such centres being established country-wide and many more meeting centres now developing across the world. Meeting Centres are a community-based way of supporting people living with dementia and their families. They provide a place where people are supported to understand and adapt to living with dementia. Meeting Centres offer a person-centred approach for people living with dementia and their supporting family members. In the UK, this initiative is being led by the University of Worcester. There are currently 45 Meeting Centres open or in the process of opening in the UK.
What are the benefits of a Meeting Centre?
Family carers feel more competent to provide care to their loved ones and experienced less burden, while the persons living with dementia felt happier, became more active and developed new friends in the meeting centres. Participating in the centres’ programme even resulted in less nursing home admissions. (Prof. Rose-Marie Droes, founder of the Meeting Centres support Programme.)
Tipton is the second Meeting Centre to open in Sandwell.
Please click this link to view their flyer telling you all about it.
The other Meeting Centre in Sandwell in Oldbury has been open since March 2022. Oldbury Meeting Centre is a collaboration between Thinking Differently About Dementia and Sandwell Community Dementia Service