Our services Help and support at home Dementia support All our services are able to provide support to people living with dementia and their carers. As the leading local provider of care for older people outside the statutory sector, working with an estimated 700 people per week across our ten services, we are increasingly in contact with people experiencing memory loss, confusion, cognitive impairment and dementia, both pre and post diagnosis. For information about how we can help, please contact our friendly Information Officers, who will listen to your concerns and guide you to the services that can help. Dementia is the biggest global social health crisis with over 55 million people diagnosed worldwide. Kingston has a higher age expectancy and an above average number of people with dementia than the rest of the UK. Older People's Community Team Our award-winning, evidence-based, community team is well established in Kingston, working in partnership with GPs. As a provider of universal services we have a broader appeal than condition-specific service providers and have an excellent understanding of the local health and social care landscape. We work in partnership with the local voluntary sector, Kingston Council, GPs, Kingston Hospital, Your Healthcare CIC and NHS SW London. Partnerships and multidisciplinary working Our Social Prescribing Link Workers and Proactive Anticipatory Care Coordinators work alongside GPs, Adult Social Care, community health services, Kingston Hospital and community mental health services. We provide a Home from Hospital Service people aged 65+ and/or registered with a Kingston GP. These services work with many individuals living with dementia and their unpaid carers. Day centres and clubs Staywell’s Raleigh House day centre in New Malden offers a universal model of day service. May of our users are living with dementia, cognitive impairment or some form of memory loss and/or functional mental health issues. The service provides opportunities for social interaction, stimulation and easy access to Staywell’s specialist Information and Advice and other support services (e.g. Help@Home). The Bradbury in Kingston welcomes people with low-level mental health issues, providing peer support. Both services provide opportunities for carer respite. Cognitive Stimulation Therapy Staywell is able to provide Cognitive Stiumlation Therapy (CST). CST is an evidence-based group treatment, which involves 14 or more sessions of stimulating, themed activities, based around principles including learning theory and person-centred care. CST can be extended into a longer-term treatment and can be offered to a range of clients. Government guidelines recommend offering group CST to people living with mild to moderate dementia. Staywell is the only organisation providing CST in south-west London. READ MORE Helping make Kingston a dementia friendly borough 2016-2019 Staywell is committed to working with partners to enable people with dementia to feel supported and respected as well as confident that they can contribute to community life. Between 2016 and 2019 we were instrumental in a partnership intiative to make Kingston a dementia friendly borough. This involved the recruitment of 'dementia friends' and provision of dementia awareness training for a variety of local businesses and individuals, alongside other development work to allow Kingston Borough to meet the requirements of 'working towards a dementia friendly community' status as part of the implementation of Kingston’s Dementia Strategy. Our Dementia Development Coordinator qualified as a Dementia Champion and between 2016 and 2019 delivered 131 Dementia Friends sessions, in turn creating 1,969 new Dementia Friends to add to the Borough total of 12,120. Dementia Friends is a national initiative, with a target of creating four million Dementia Friends – people who have attended a 50-minute information session, and have committed to taking three actions to make a difference to the lives of people living with dementia; there are now two million UK Dementia friends. Participating in this training is mandatory for all Staywell staff. These sessions were delivered to all Kingston Council services, all four main libraries, all three leisure centres, Kingston’s Rose Theatre, Kingston Museum and the town centre management, ‘Kingston First’. Our Coordinator provided sessions with Kingston Police, including the Older and Vulnerable Persons team and mental health officers, Neighbourhood Watch and community police. Sessions were delivered at all fire stations, GP surgeries, some banks and building societies and businesses. Public sessions were held every month for anyone to attend. We received a huge amount of positive feedback on this work. ‘Your training input has been really appreciated within Kingston police and all its officers. I personally have been approached by officers who have given great feedback after your training. One Police Officer has said it was the best course he had attended in his whole Police career!’(Kingston Borough Mental Health Liaison Officer) The initiative was energetically promoted: the Coordinator attended numerous networking events, such as Chamber Commerce and Omni breakfasts, and presented to all the Conservative Councillors, The Mayor and Chief Executive of the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, as well as ensuring the work was featured on many websites, in local magazine/newspaper articles and social network sites, and promoted through information stands at local events. The National Dementia Action Alliance is an alliance of organisations across England to connect, share best practice and take action on dementia. Kingston’s Dementia Action Alliance (KDAA) was launched in May 2016, with five members: Staywell, Alzheimer’s society, Kingston Healthwatch, Kingston Older People’s Community Mental Health Team and care provider Home Instead. In 2019 membership had increased to 41, including social care providers, government bodies, pharmacists and GPs, Kingston Hospital, businesses, charities and wellbeing organisations. For more information about any of these services, please contact us. Dementia Prevention You may also be interested in this blog from Dr Debbie Stinson, Staywell trustee and Consultant Psychiatrist at South West London and St George's Mental Health NHS Trust. Manage Cookie Preferences