Creating Dementia friendly communities: a policy evaluation

Rationale for research: This project builds on funded work led by members of the research team on the characteristics people living with dementia across England, the development of an evaluation tool to assess the impact of age friendly cities, a theory driven review of the evidence of what supports effective community engagement for people living with dementia, and a series of health focused studies on how to improve access to and experience of health and social care for people living and dying with dementia. The review work on Community Engagement found that whilst there is evidence of uptake of awareness training by different groups, and a broad consensus on what dementia friendly initiatives should achieve, there is little work that goes beyond process evaluation or descriptions of what needs to be in place to achieve Dementia Friendly Cities (DFC). For example, it is unclear whether or how the active involvement of people living with dementia with a range of experiences and backgrounds has influenced outcomes. There is also little discussion of how the progression of dementia affects individuals’ ability to sustain engagement and what might be appropriate for different groups in different locations.