Work with London arts organisations to pilot programmes for people affected by early-stage dementia and their companions to provide a shared joyful and stimulating experience. The programmes are co-funded with the host organisation to ensure they also have a stake and may sustain the work.
Creative skills can remain vibrant for years after the onset of dementia. It is now well known that engaging in artistic activity is a highly effective non-pharmacological way to reawaken and re-stimulate cognitive ability. More that that, it offers inspiration and a sense of purpose and joy for those facing the shock of a recent diagnosis. But while arts provision is available in care homes, there is little quality provision for those in the community - and what there is is hard to find.
We provide inspirational arts opportunities for people affected by early-stage dementia, we work with arts organisations to create their own continuing programmes and we train arts workshop leaders to understand early-stage dementia and to deliver their own person-centred programmes . We also enable people looking for stimulation to find arts opportunities via the unique national listings on the A4D website. This project represents our core London arts activities during 2018.