The Dementia Diaries

What we initially found out Kent County Council, 2011 Select Committee Report Recommendation 5: To ensure young people have a good understanding of dementia This aligned with insight and ideas that people living with dementia shared as part of the SILK review of the dementia pathway.

Research Identifying Partners, Stakeholders, young carers, support staff and Professional consultants for input and endorsement Filtering to find contributing carers Interviewing, getting the stories, then transcribing from the interviews Appointing of an Author and Artist to take on the project Story boards completed, Test Story and feedback session, First draft, final draft and then first print run! How did we do it?

The coproduction approach The Dementia Diaries have been developed collaboratively using the SILK co-production approach Snapshot of tools and techniques used

The Dementia Diaries have been developed in a true collaborative style Young people from ‘Faces of Kent’ Young Carers have acted as the ‘Editorial Board’ Families across Kent were invited to participate and all the contributing families are now involved in the on-going development of the Dementia Diaries. Students studying dementia from Kent College have contributed the information signposting pages. And we must not forget…. Internationally acclaimed film-maker Matt Snyman. Nor, our very own team at SILK

Aspiration & requirements To increase awareness of dementia amongst children and young people across Kent “In the style of a journal like Diary of a Wimpy Kid… with entries from young people who have relatives with dementia…” “Not too technical or scary… but will give young people an accurate understanding of what happens when someone has it.” “Fictional stories, but based on real life, so the facts are accurate and the feelings are real…”

What was already available We researched existing information that was available for children and young people about living with dementia

Creating and developing A StoryBoard was drafted based on needs and aspirations identified previously by the young carers Families were interviewed and from these interviews the author Matt Snyman created the Dementia Diaries Matt then met the families and young people to have a first ‘public’ reading. Everyone was happy and all the stories and illustrations were then completed.

Finished Product

We have distributed books to the following…… Each of the families and those involved in the production received 10 copies The DFC ref group received a copy each as have stakeholders, partners and other interested parties Each of the Libraries and Mobile libraries hold a copy Kent and Medway Primary and Secondary schools hold copies Colleges across Kent hold copies Those not distributed are to be sold through fulfilment So, What have we done?

We have had a Book Launch on 27th Sept To launch the book and say a huge thank you to the editorial group. Also to introduce the two supporting films The Making of the Dementia Diaries The Braincell Boogie

Going forward… We are finding ways to share our product with other areas. Both the book as it is, and with the additional resource pack that is being developed. Working with other area’s allowing slight changes to the covers to personalise (own ISBN no’) We have started work on a resource pack to go with the book to allow it to be used as a learning tool We have arranged sales fulfilment of the book through Amazon Next Steps