Isolation Resources – September

We’re very excited about Dunk a Donut for Dementia! on 20th October. Gather your friends for an online coffee/tea and donut! We want to raise awareness of Dementia and have fun whilst doing so. Any donations via our website most welcome too.
Join us at 7.30pm on Zoom in the evening for our review of the year: celebrating our achievements in raising awareness of Dementia in the Bristol area. Please book your free place to join us on the night for an hour. Have another donut ready 😉

Don’t forget to book your free place on Supporting Young People with Dementia. We have joined with Alive Activities and BRACE to create the Bristol Dementia Charities Network offering these free webinars on 28th September at 10am and 28th October at 2pm. 
Dementia is not just an older person’s condition; it also affects people in younger life. It is estimated there are over 40,000 people under the age of 65 living with a dementia diagnosis legal hcg fertigyn pregnyl in the UK.
Early onset dementia can affect people between the age of 30 and 65. Having dementia whilst of working age presents new and different sets of challenges to living well with dementia, some of which will be addressed in these webinars.

Bristol Health Partners AHSC Conference opening and panel session on 28th September:

  • Hear about our designation as an Academic Health Science Centre, and our achievements over the last year
  • Uncover what has been learnt from the response to COVID-19 that can be applied to action on enduring challenges of inequality and climate change
  • Learn about successful approaches to involving communities in addressing these healthcare challenges
  • Develop practical solutions together

Book your spot here – this goes on through to 1st October.
Our own Subitha Baghirathan, Freelance Development Officer for BDAA, will be speaking about our work to improve knowledge of dementia in some local BAME communities, and to learn more ourselves about diverse experiences of dementia across different communities in Bristol.

I have written, on behalf of BDAA, to Age UK regarding the BBC TV license. This is the email I sent. We thought you might be interested in the latest newsletter from the Bristol Older People’s Forum and Bristol City Council: https://bopf.org.uk/news/bopf-magazine/

We love this Dementia calendar – limited stocks available. See this email for details.

Video Wills? Join BRACE for a discussion on 15th October. All details here.

This is a lovely short video about music and dementia: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/health-54211802

Here’s some more information from VOSCUR:

  1. Police Crime Commissioner, Sue Mountstevens, is carrying out a consultation on policing priorities in the light of the COVID-19 virus and also seeking local people’s views on where additional police officers should be applied. Please complete the survey and we welcome you to share with your contacts too so that they can take account of as many local voices as possible.
  2. Glitch and the End the Violence Coalition have jointly published a report called The Ripple Effect: COVID-19 and the Epidemic of Online Abuse, which found that almost 1 in 2 women and non-binary people experienced online abuse since the start of the pandemic. 1 in 3 of those who had reported online abuse before the pandemic said it had worsened during COVID-19. Gender was the most cited reason for online abuse. 
  3. Bristol Mind can now offer free counselling to people who are shielding as a result of the pandemic, particularly those who are older, part of a Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic community, or in priority wards such as Avonmouth, Barton Hill and Hartcliffe & Withywood (full list on page 4 of the Mind newsletter). You can self-refer, or be referred by a family member or agency. Email counselling@bristolmind.org.uk to be sent a registration form. 


Free mental health training from Thrive Bristol
These courses have been funded by the CCG and organised by Bristol Public Health. Open access courses for people working or volunteering in the community in Bristol – https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/thrive-bristol-31019592755
Groups and organisations can also arrange free closed training sessions – email thrive.bristol@bristol.gov.uk. Priority will be given to those working with communities experiencing inequalities in mental health and wellbeing.
Courses currently being offered are:

  • Adult Mental Health Aware: 4-hour session from Bristol Mind covering mental health, common mental health issues, and supporting someone in distress
  • Connect 5: skills-based programme focussing on empowering people to improve their mental wellbeing through evidence-based psychologically informed tools including Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and the Five Ways to Wellbeing. It is an incremental, three-module programme, escalating skills through each 3-hour session. Participants can choose to take Module 1 only, Module 1 & 2, or Module 1, 2 & 3
  • Suicide Awareness: 1-hour session looking at how we can tell if someone is thinking about suicide, the importance of asking about suicidal thoughts, what to do next, listening, keeping safe and looking after your own wellbeing
  • Loss and bereavement: 1-hour webinar by Cruse on the grieving process, simple things to do when interacting with bereaved people and awareness of support organisations

E-learning courses – Psychological First Aid (3 hours): https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/psychological-first-aid-covid-19 and Suicide Awareness (20 mins): https://www.relias.co.uk/hubfs/ZSA-FullTraining/story_html5.html

Dementia Friendly Church will be hosting some online webinars this autumn/winter – first one is likely to be on Pastoral care under lockdown – watch this space!

Here is Age UK’s latest newsletter.

There are some free online courses on grieving, living with death and dying and ageing and disability on the Open University website. The first one is about Life or Death Decisions – advanced care planning (20 minutes long).


Music for Dementia has launched m4d Radio, bringing music to the homes of people living with dementia. 


Public Health England has published this Health and Wellbeing at Home advice page with lots of advice and resources for people spending time at home.

There’s just a few weeks left to support BDAA, via The Co-op. You can choose BDAA from here. This is an easy way to support us and last year we received an incredible £4,800.

Thank you to VOSCUR for this relevant information:

  • Thrive Bristol offers free mental health training, funded by Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire Clinical Commissioning Group (BNSSG CCG) and Bristol Public Health, with a range of online courses for people in VCSE organisations, covering topics like building resilience, suicide awareness and bereavement. Your group or organisation can also book free private training by emailing thrive.bristol@bristol.gov.uk.
  • Bristol Mind can now offer free counselling to people who are shielding as a result of the pandemic, particularly those who are older, part of a Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic community, or in priority wards such as Avonmouth, Barton Hill and Hartcliffe & Withywood (full list on page 4 of the Mind newsletter). You can self-refer, or be referred by a family member or agency. Email counselling@bristolmind.org.uk to be sent a registration form. 


Please do become a Dementia Friend if you are not already one. You can do this easily online – please do let us know if you have done this by filling in this online form so that we can keep track of the numbers. There are over 500,000 people living and working in Bristol, let’s see how many can become Dementia Friends and support the 4,500+ people living with Dementia in the city. The short video explains a little more about Dementia Friends. Please do share this with your friends, family and work colleagues. Let us know if your organisation becomes Dementia Friendly this way so that we can mention it in our updates and share online – or even better share on social media and tag BDAA (links below).

Did you know we offer free Dementia Friendly Building Audits? If your premises is currently empty now might be a good time to check that it’s as Dementia Friendly as possible. Drop us a line for our Audit sheet which you can take around the premises. Then if you need additional email support or an online meeting let us know. Once completed we can send you a sticker to display and add you to our Becoming Dementia Friendly Organisations List on our website.