The second series of co-design workshops for the IDoService project took place in February and March 2022. Like the workshops at the end of last year, people living with mild to moderate dementia and their support persons met with researchers face-to-face during a Dementia Café run by Age UK Salford. Workshops with staff from charities and organisations related to dementia and social or volunteer activities were organised online. Insights from these exchanges allowed the research team to have a better overview of the user service journey right before and after a dementia diagnosis in Greater Manchester. Discussions were about where, and in which format IDoService might be able to support participation in activities and volunteering opportunities for people living with mild to moderate dementia.
The importance of a strength-based approach has been highlighted again and the workshops participants and research team elaborated together on which tools might be supportive to people. In particular, exchanges have been around a Skills and Preferences Inventory that could help to define opportunities for people for active participation in activities as well as volunteering by providing contact with relevant organisations, charities, or services through a “skills fair”, or similar. The next project step will be to prototype this skills exchange service through tailored regular one-to-one sessions with three to four people living with mild dementia interested in being among the first people to benefit from and try this service. For more information see https://www.mmu.ac.uk/research/research-centres/msarc/projects/idoservice. For any questions or suggestions contact Dr Isabelle Tournier by email idoservice@mmu.ac.uk or on Twitter @idoservice4dem1
