Touchstone BME Dementia Forum
Touchstone’s BME (Black and Minority Ethnic) Dementia Service provides specialist support to people living with memory problems or a diagnosis of dementia and their carers from ethnic minorities. Our aim is to raise awareness of dementia within BME communities by breaking down the barriers that exists about dementia and bring it out into the open so that people can access the support they need while meeting their language, cultural and religious needs.
We provide culturally appropriate Dementia awareness talks within community settings such as Day centres, local community groups or religious centres. The talks are tailored to the needs of the group and can be delivered in English, Punjabi, Hindi or Urdu languages.
We also run a fortnightly South Asian Dementia Café, Hamari Yaadain (Our Memories) on the first and third Thursday of every month from 1pm to 3pm. The café is for South Asian people with memory issues and their carers and run in a mother tongue · It’s a safe space where you can get out and about to meet others, make friends and enjoy hot drinks and snacks. Transport can be requested for a minimal charge, if you have limited mobility.
We provide person centred care by doing needs based assessment on one-to-one basis. We can also provide support if you are having memory problems and is struggling to get a diagnosis.
Since 2013, when we founded the BME Dementia Forum, we have led a group of BME dementia workers in Leeds to improve services for people with dementia and their carer’s, specifically for people from BME communities