Dementia Carer Voices who we are - what we do

Dementia Carer Voices

Reaching out to carers of people with dementia and giving them a voice through a “letters campaign” has been part of the awareness raising activity of Tommy Whitelaw, who has experienced first hand what it is like to care for someone with dementia. Tommy has also made a film about dementia and caring for someone with dementia with a view to reaching a wide audience in the UK and beyond.  Read Tommy's blog .
Dementia Carer Voices builds on the awareness activities from 'Tommy on Tour ' .This ALLIANCE project has been made possible with funding from the Scottish Government.
The ALLIANCE recognises the importance of the Carer Voice in informing future service provision and in empowering carers themselves. To this end the Dementia Carer Voices project aims to

• Harness the work undertaken to date, particularly by the Tommy on Tour  campaign
• Develop this by supporting Tommy Whitelaw to undertake further outreach work to carer organisations across Scotland

In doing this, the ALLIANCE will highlight the importance of family carers being enabled after diagnosis to build and sustain a network of support, preventing crisis situations and feel enabled to ask for additional help when it is needed;

• Capture the experiences of carers across Scotland with a view to informing future policy and service provision
• Raise awareness of the issues around caring for someone with dementia including among health and social care students
• Empower carers by providing information based on the Charter of Rights and Carer Strategy about caring for someone with dementia
• Highlight the role of Carers as natural resources; Carers as people with needs; Carers as people with independent live
• Work with other Carer Organisations and key stakeholders to ensure that relevant strategies are well informed by the views of service users. (As a network organisation which includes organisations such as - Alzheimer Scotland, Carers’ Coalition and Age Concern within our membership, we are well placed to undertake this role).

The project will do this through visits and talks to Carer Organisations; the provision of written materials with key carer messages; dissemination of information including through social media;  network events and consider possible future film to raise awareness/understanding.

The project team have put together a short survey to enable them to capture key messages from carers which will be used to influence future policy.

If you have experience of caring for someone with dementia you can contribute and have your say on your hopes and concerns for the future by visiting http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/V7SYL2G 

You can browse all of the project's resources by clicking here.
For further information, contact Programme Director Irene Oldfather , Project Officer Tommy Whitelaw or Policy and Information Assistant Christopher Doyle. To sign up to recieve future updates, click here.
Tommy produced a short film, which includes families and carers reading from the letters they sent him.

Photos  from Tommy on Tour awareness raising campaign.

Follow Dementia Carer Voices on Twitter  .