Welcome to the Four Rivers Dementia Alliance - an information hub

July 2026 - There Has Been Lots Going On Throughout The Month

31/7/2026

• I have been busy typing up the reports of some of the recent dementia friendly premises assessments I have carried out in Ivybridge e.g. Chapel Place Community Centre and Co-op Funeralcare and will be completing the reports for the assessments of Ivybridge Town Council Office and The Watermark in the next few weeks.

• I have continued visiting some of the businesses in Ivybridge with Councillor Crystal Cao, to offer them support to become dementia friendly.

• I also met with Councillor Victor Abbott (Ivybridge Town Councillor and South Hams District Councillor, 27/07/26) to discuss potentially offering support to become dementia friendly to parishes outside of the official 4RDA catchment area.

• I met with Laura Quigley (20/07/26). Laura is the Coordinator of the Carer’s Support Group in the Woolwell Centre in Bickleigh Parish. We discussed the group joining 4RDA and also potentially supporting the Woolwell Centre to become dementia friendly.

• I have continued co-facilitating the fortnightly carer’s group at Tumbly Hill Wellbeing Hub in Kingsbridge with Suzi Garrod (CEO and Dementia and Palliative Care Lead).

• Alongside my Dementia Friendly Parishes around the Yealm (DFPY) colleagues, carers and Laura Donovan (Social Prescriber), I met with a visiting delegation of nursing students and their lecturers from Nanfang University in China (28/07/26) as part of their summer school in partnership with the University of Plymouth. I prepared some written information for them to take away and talked to them about my roles working for both 4RDA and DFPY.

• Alongside my DFPY colleagues, I attended the Yealmpton Show with our information stand (29/07/26). I spoke to a number of people about the support DFPY offers and also about the work of 4RDA.

A few other things in the pipeline are:

• I will continue visiting businesses in Ivybridge with Councillor Crystal Cao (This will be ongoing); I will be delivering a dedicated dementia awareness session for one of the opticians in the town (05/08/26), one for a solicitor’s firm (13/10/26) and I am currently in the process of arranging a date for another optician’s firm.

• The work supporting Tumbly Hill Wellbeing Hub in Kingsbridge will be continuing.

• I will be attending the next Dementia Support South Devon Forum meeting (05/08/26) and the next South Hams District Wellbeing Alliance meeting (11/08/26) and I will give an update on the work of 4RDA and DFPY at both.

• I am in the process of arranging a date to carry out some dementia friendly building assessments on two of the public buildings in south Brent parish.