By Sarah Russell, CEO, Tibbs Dementia Foundation
We were delighted earlier this year to be awarded a new three-year contract with Bedford Borough Council, Central Bedfordshire Council and the ICB to continue supporting people living with dementia, and their adult carers, across our local communities.
Of course it means a great deal to us to receive that vote of confidence in Tibbs Dementia Foundation, but far more important is what the funding allows us to do.
It gives us a vital opportunity to make support easier to find, to reach more people, and to continue building a community in which people living with dementia – and those who care for them – feel welcomed and connected. This is what Tibbs stands for.
Making support simpler
One of the most important changes under the new contract is that it brings together previously disparate services under one provider, allowing Tibbs to deliver the Memory Navigation Service for Bedfordshire (excluding Luton).
We’re now delivering the service as Tibbs Dementia Connections, with no change to the support available.
For somebody who has recently received a dementia diagnosis, or a family suddenly trying to understand what happens next, navigating different services and organisations can be difficult.
We want to make that journey simpler, and our hope is that people will now have to tell their story only once. They know who they are talking to and, once they become part of the Tibbs community, know where they can turn when they need information, reassurance, activities or support.
A dementia diagnosis can bring uncertainty and worry, particularly during those first few months. If we can be there early, help people understand their diagnosis, introduce them to others, and connect them with the activities and support that are right for them, we can help them begin to find their feet again.
Our aim is to give people what they need to carry on living as well as possible, rather than having a dementia diagnosis define the rest of their lives.
Why connection matters
There’s a reason that “connection” is such an important word for us. We want our service to improve connections within families, to help people find connections in their local communities, and to connect people to other service providers who can help.
Tibbs currently runs 53 regular groups and activities across Bedfordshire, alongside larger community events throughout the year. Resources across health and social care are stretched. None of us can, or should, try to do everything alone. If organisations know one another, talk to one another and share knowledge and resources, we can make it easier for people to find the support that is already around them. Our plan for the next three years is to do exactly that.
Reaching communities in different ways
The contract also gives us an opportunity to continue developing our work in communities that have historically been less likely to access dementia support. We have already begun building relationships within some of Bedfordshire’s diverse communities, and we want those relationships to grow.
We know that one approach won’t work for everybody. Sometimes the right starting point isn’t a conversation about dementia at all. It might be a conversation about brain health, sleep, stress, physical wellbeing or simply how we can all live a little better.
The important thing for us is to listen first, build trust and work alongside communities. The same principle is behind our developing rural communities model; the people who live there understand their community far better than we do. Instead, we can share what we have learnt, provide information and help local volunteers build the confidence and skills to create something that works for their own community. Over time, our role may become smaller, but the connection remains. For me, this is what community support should look like.
The next three years
The community-based model of dementia support works because everybody has something to contribute. It isn’t a case of “us and them”, and it isn’t about a provider arriving and sorting everything out. People living with dementia, carers, volunteers, families, local groups, health and social care professionals and the wider community all have a place at the table. This new contract gives us a strong foundation from which to continue that work, and from which to improve connections between every piece of the puzzle.
We are enormously grateful to Bedford Borough Council, Central Bedfordshire Council and the ICB for continuing to invest in community dementia support, and for recognising its value.
The contract doesn’t fund everything we would like to do. I think of it more as a seed from which other positive things can grow. Over the next three years, we want to build new partnerships, welcome more volunteers, reach communities we haven’t reached before and bring in additional resources that allow theTibbs community to become stronger still.
Dementia isn’t going away, and we know there are enormous pressures on health and social care. If we can continue building evidence that a community-led approach works, we can share what we have learnt, and perhaps help other communities build something of their own.
For me, that would be a powerful thing to come from the next three years. Our ambition isn’t simply for Tibbs to grow; it’s for more people living with dementia, and more of the people who care for them, to know that there’s a community around them – and that they don’t have to find their way alone.
