A recent Scottish Dementia Working Group (SDWG) project, helping to organise an afternoon tea dance, was a slight departure from the group’s normal work of supporting research and influencing policy, but was equally important, as it involved championing change to help deliver a truly dementia-friendly, accessible event. The project came about as a result of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra’s (SCO) charity partnership with Alzheimer Scotland. Through this partnership, the SCO wanted to hold a dementia-friendly concert, to offer the best and most accessible experience as possible for people living with dementia and their carers. SDWG members joined a small working group to ensure the perspective of those with lived experienced was at the heart of all aspects of the arrangements for the concert.
Members were consulted on matters including the concert’s content, accessibility, and marketing. Six SDWG members, along with carers, attended what was a ‘sold out’ event on 7 February, in the Queens Hall, Edinburgh. SCO members entered the hall and moved amongst the audience playing their instruments and guests were treated to an afternoon of classic tunes, Scottish and Irish reels and jigs, and some well-known waltzes and polkas. The SDWG and Alzheimer Scotland hope that this will be the start of a programme of similar dementia-friendly events.
