The 4RDA Blog
April 2026 - Exciting First Steps Have Been Happening In Different Areas This Month!
1/5/2026
Exciting first steps on the dementia friendly journey have been happening in different areas this month!• Across April, I have continued visiting businesses in Ivybridge with Councillor Crystal Cao (Ivybridge Town Council designated dementia friendly lead) to make them aware of the work being done to make Ivybridge a dementia friendly community, leaving them the introductory letter and revisiting some of them to offer support to become dementia friendly. We will continue to do this until we have seen all of them. We are now starting to plan the first wave of awareness sessions and dementia friendly premises assessments to be offered.
• I started facilitating the new carer’s support group at Tumbly Hill Wellbeing Hub in Kingsbridge (21/04/26). I’ll be co facilitating this once a fortnight with Suzi Garrod (CEO and Dementia and Palliative Care Lead) for the first 6 months.
• I delivered a dementia awareness session to a group of Tumbly Hill Wellbeing volunteers (21/04/26).
• I carried out a village signage audit with two councillors who are part of Modbury Parish Council’s Community Engagement Committee meeting (27/04/26). I will be subsequently typing up a report for them with recommendations.
• I attended the 4RDA AGM (28/04/26) at Ivybridge Rugby Club and reported on what I have been working on over the past year.
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 a while), delivering dementia awareness sessions and dementia friendly premises assessments etc.
• The work at Tumbly Hill in Kingsbridge will be ongoing.
• I will continue to support Ermington and Modbury (and any other parish council that wishes to move forward with becoming dementia friendly).
• I will continue writing dementia friendly information guides for different sectors (The Care Guide is in progress).
March 2026 - March Has Been A Full And Varied Month!
6/4/2026
• Across the month, I have continued visiting businesses in Ivybridge with Councillor Crystal Cao (Ivybridge Town Council) to make them aware of the work being done to make Ivybridge a dementia friendly community, leaving them the introductory letter and revisiting some of them to offer support to become dementia friendly. We will continue to do this until we have visited all of the businesses.• I met with an independent speech and language therapist (10/03/26) to discuss the work of both 4RDA and Dementia Friendly Parishes Around the Yealm.
• I attended Modbury Parish Council’s Community Engagement Committee meeting (10/03/26) to discuss ways of starting to work on making Modbury more dementia friendly. It was agreed that this would start with a village signage audit.
• I gave a talk about the work of 4RDA and Dementia Friendly Parishes Around the Yealm at a social evening for staff and drivers of the Ivybridge and District Community Transport Association (18/03/26).
• I attended the Erme & Yealm Caring Alliance meeting (18/03/26) and gave an update on the work of 4RDA and Dementia Friendly Parishes Around the Yealm.
• I attended the UK Dementia & Palliative Care Conference (24/03/26) at Buckfast Abbey which was a great day, packed with lots of useful information.
• I met with Suzi Garrod (Chief Executive and Dementia and Palliative Care Lead, Tumbly Hill Wellbeing Hub in Kingsbridge) to discuss and plan the first session of their forthcoming carer’s support group that I will be co-facilitating with her for a few months (25/03/26).
• Copies of the dementia friendly guide I wrote for GP practices have now been printed.
A few other things in the pipeline are:
• I will be starting to co-facilitate the carer’s support group with Suzi Garrod at Tumbly Hill Wellbeing Hub in Kingsbridge (07/04/26). This will be fortnightly and I will be supporting for the first six months.
• I will continue visiting businesses in Ivybridge with Cllr Crystal Cao (This will be an ongoing piece of work for a while) and starting to plan the first awareness sessions, dementia friendly premises assessments to be offered, soon.
• I will be attending the next South Hams Dementia Forum meeting (22/04/26) and will give an update about the work of both 4RDA and Dementia Friendly Parishes around the Yealm.
• I will conduct a dementia friendly signage audit in Modbury (27/04/26) with some members of the community engagement committee.
• I will be attending the 4RDA AGM (28/04/26) at Ivybridge Rugby Club and will report on what I have been working on over the past year.
February 2026 - February May Be The Shortest Month Of The Year But It Has Been A Busy One!
2/3/2026
• I attended a meeting of the Dementia Support South Devon forum for the first time (02/02/25) and gave an update on the work of 4RDA and Dementia Friendly Parishes around the Yealm.• I met with Councillor Margaret Grafton (Ermington Parish Council) to conduct a village signage audit (09/02/26) and subsequently compiled a report with recommendations on how to make the signage dementia friendly. Cllr Grafton will discuss the report with her fellow councillors at their March parish council meeting.
• I met with Councillor Crystal Cao (Ivybridge Town Council) to share the newly printed dementia friendly introduction letters and discuss an initial plan of approaching the businesses in the town (09/02/26). This so far resulted in Cllr Cao and I visiting the first group of businesses (16/02/26) to make them aware of the work being done to make Ivybridge a dementia friendly community, leaving them the introductory letter with a plan to revisit again shortly to gauge their interest and offer support to become dementia friendly. We will do this a number of times until we have visited all of the businesses and will then meet to plan next steps.
• I attended the South Hams District Alliance meeting (11/02/26) and gave an update about the work of both 4RDA and Dementia Friendly Parishes around the Yealm.
• I met with Suzi Garrod (Chief Executive and Dementia and Palliative Care Lead, Tumbly Hill Wellbeing Hub in Kingsbridge) again to discuss a provisional plan re: support that 4RDA could give with their forthcoming carer’s support group and other planned dementia services (16/02/26).
• The 4RDA “working to become dementia friendly” window stickers I previously began working on designing have now been printed. So, these are now ready to be offered to organisations and businesses when they start to take tangible actions towards becoming dementia friendly. The certificates are also in the process of being printed.
• I wrote a mini dementia friendly guide for estate agents wishing to become dementia friendly. Also, the guide I wrote for GP practices has been edited and will be going to print shortly.
A few other things in the pipeline are:
• I am booked to attend Modbury Parish Council’s Community Engagement Committee meeting (10/03/26) to discuss ways of starting to work on making Modbury more dementia friendly.
• I have been invited to give a talk about the work of 4RDA and Dementia Friendly Parishes Around the Yealm at a social evening for staff and drivers of the Ivybridge and District Community Transport Association (Ring and Ride). This will be taking place on (18/03/26).
• I will be attending the next Erme & Yealm Caring Alliance meeting (18/03/26) and will give an update on the work of 4RDA and Dementia Friendly Parishes Around the Yealm.
• I will continue to work on drafting an information pack for the care sector.