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Four Rivers Dementia Alliance

The 4RDA Blog

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.

June 2026 - The Busy Times Have Continued Through This Month

1/7/2026

• In Ivybridge, I carried out some more dementia friendly premises assessments: One of the Ivybridge Town Council Offices (02/06/26) and one of the Watermark (This was done over two dates i.e. 08/06/26 and 15/06/26 due to the size of the building) with Councillor Crystal Cao. As always, I will be typing up reports for these with recommendations.

• I also re-visited some of the businesses in the town to offer them the choice of two initial dates for their staff to attend a dementia awareness session-the first one of which was held on 29/06/26.

• I attended a parish council meeting in South Brent (15/06/26) and gave a presentation about how they could continue building on the work they have already carried out, to become a dementia friendly parish. They have a provisional plan in place but will be discussing this further at a future meeting.

• I attended an Erme and Yealm Caring Alliance meeting (24/06/26) and gave an update on the work of both Four Rivers (4RDA) and Dementia Friendly Parishes Around the Yealm (DFPY).

• I continued co-facilitating the fortnightly carer’s group at Tumbly Hill Wellbeing Hub in Kingsbridge (02/06/26 and16/06/26) with Suzi Garrod (CEO and Dementia and Palliative Care Lead).

A few other things in the pipeline are:

• I will continue visiting businesses in Ivybridge with Cllr Crystal Cao (This will be an ongoing piece of work) and I will be delivering another dementia awareness session which is open for any businesses to attend (13/07/26). I have also been asked by three businesses in the town to deliver a dedicated session for their staff teams- One of these is booked for (05/08/26) and I am in the process of arranging dates for the other two.

• The work supporting Tumbly Hill, Kingsbridge will continue.

• Alongside DFPY colleagues, I will be meeting with a delegation of students and their lecturers from Nanfang University in China (28/07/26) as part of a summer school in partnership with the University of Plymouth, to talk about the work of 4RDA and DFPY.

• When time allows, I will continue with writing dementia friendly information guides for different sectors -Currently, this includes doing more work on the mini-guide for funeral directors.

Nanfang College, Guangzhou and University of Plymouth Sign MoU to Strengthen Collaboration

May 2026 - Lots Of Progress Made This Month

1/6/2026

• I continued facilitating the fortnightly carer’s group at Tumbly Hill Wellbeing Hub in Kingsbridge (05/09/26 and 19/05/26) with Suzi Garrod (CEO and Dementia and Palliative Care Lead). The group has been renamed “Supporter’s Group” at the request of those attending because, as they explained, “You support us to support them”.

• I submitted my report of the village signage audit I carried out in Modbury last month, to the parish council community engagement committee (18/05/26).

• I carried out two dementia friendly premises assessments in Ivybridge: One of the Chapel Place Community Centre (11/05/26) with Councillors Victor Abbott and Crystal Cao and one of the Co-op Funeralcare (26/05/26). I will type up reports for them both with recommendations.

• I attended the Dementia Support South Devon Forum meeting at Ashburton (05/05/26). I made everyone attending, aware of the work of Four Rivers (4RDA) and also that of Dementia Friendly Parishes Around the Yealm (DFPY) and subsequently forwarded on electronic copies of all of the sector “how to become dementia friendly” information packs that we have produced so far, to the chair so they could be shared with everyone.

• I started working on a mini dementia friendly guide for funeral directors.

A few other things in the pipeline are:

• I will continue visiting businesses in Ivybridge with Cllr Crystal Cao (This will be an ongoing piece of work for some time), delivering dementia awareness sessions and dementia friendly premises assessments-The next one of these is planned for 01/06/26 and will be on the Ivybridge Town Council office and I will also be carrying out a dementia friendly premises assessment on The Watermark building (08/06/26).

• The work supporting Tumbly Hill, Kingsbridge will continue.

• I am booked to give a presentation at a South Brent Parish Council meeting (15/06/26) to outline how they can become a dementia friendly parish-They are already off to a very positive start by being the first parish in the 4RDA catchment area to install dementia friendly village signage.

• I will be attending the Erme & Yealm Caring Alliance meeting in Ivybridge (24/06/26) where I will give an update on the work of both 4RDA and DFPY.

• I will continue with writing dementia friendly information guides for different sectors -The mini-guide for funeral directors currently and then I will return to the one for the care sector.