Dementia Advocacy
How Can Dementia Advocacy Help You?
The BJF Dementia Advocacy Project was founded in 1998 and offers free advocacy support to people aged 50 plus in Stoke and North Staffordshire who are living with a diagnosis of dementia, awaiting diagnosis or who are undergoing assessment for memory issues.
Advocacy means supporting a person to have their voice heard by others; taking their side and helping them to get their point across. It involves supporting people to participate in the processes affecting their life. Advocacy is person-centred, focusing on the wishes of the person themselves; it does not take a ‘best interests’ approach or support the views of other people involved. Advocates will never make decisions on behalf of a person without checking what they want to happen; or try to influence decisions/persuade them to take a particular course of action.
The issues that advocates can help you with are varied and often complex. Advocacy support can include concerns involving accommodation, all types of abuse, challenging service providers, family dynamics, planning for the future and many more issues.
Do You Know Someone with Dementia?
Our Dementia Advocates can
- Give them time and listen to what they are saying
- Offer support and understanding
- Find out information for them
- Help them to speak to other people or organisations
- Help them to have control over their life
- Download our leaflet to find out more about dementia advocacy
“without this support I would really have gone down bank”
Dementia Advocacy Peer Support Group (DAPSG)
We offer a Dementia Advocacy Peer Support Group (DAPSG) facilitated by advocacy staff at the Beth Johnson Foundation. This group offers warm, comfortable, safe space where people living with dementia can support each other, without their carers or family members, and talk freely about the things on their minds.
Video – BJF Peer Support Group – Living Well with Dementia 2020
Other video resources:
- BJF Peer Support Group – A morning at the theatre 2020
- Dementia Friends BSL Session – Deaflinks 2017
Publications
Dementia Enquirers Report
The DAPSG looked at whether class, intellect or ethnicity have an impact on the dementia pathway for the person with dementia. You can read our Dementia Enquirers Report
Living with Dementia – My Life, My Goals
Two members of our DAPSG have been working with Innovations in Dementia to produce a booklet with information about cognitive rehabilitation. My Life, My Goals was created by and for people with dementia. The guide is full of ideas to help people living with dementia think about their goals with help, step-by-step, to achieve them. Download My Life, My Goals
We were recently chosen to be featured by Staffordshire Living as part of their focus on Dementia services across the county.
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