Hit Out At Dementia

The local economy

Around £23bn is spent each year by the NHS on dealing with patients with dementia. Most of this goes to those aged 65 years or above. The medical model focused on the elderly is so dominant that few health professionals are aware of the psychosocial impact that dementia has on an individual and that dealing with issues of social isolation and mental wellbeing are equally important in slowing down the progress of the disease. This perspective inevitably dominates consultations between doctors and patients. It would be very naïve of this study to suggest that a project such as the Hit Out at Dementia project could have anything more than the smallest of impacts on reducing this cost. However, there is some evidence emerging in this research to suggest that, despite this, a number of the participants who have been supported by the HOD project regard themselves as having improvements in their lives of dealing with their own, or others close to them, mental and/or social repercussions of illnesses.

Volunteering, jobs & education

We have had a continuation of the project since the official end date, participants will continue to attend every Friday and they have all signed up to the community centres “silver service scheme” after each session members go to their cafe where they are able to have a hot drink and chat to others. Although none of yet, this scheme provides the opportunity for participants to volunteer.

Activity, health and leisure

Prior to the project, 8 participants deemed themselves as inactive (0-30 mins exercise per week) and 10 of them saw themselves as fairly active but at the lower scale of the minutes (30-120 mins per week). Due to our project offering 2 hours of low level physical activity per week. All participants are no longer “inactive” as they have improved their physical activity levels