This opening event of the second phase of Memory-Friendly Neighbourhoods was held at Dovecot Studios in Edinburgh on 27th April 2016.
Phase Two focused on the ‘virtual neighbourhood’, and the event was a chance for people involved in web design and content provision to get together to discuss the challenges they face in making their sites dementia-friendly.
After a short introduction to the objectives and timescale of our project, we held an open forum to discuss our proposed methodology (surveys and a ‘town hall’ meeting approach), with a particular emphasis on ways of engaging people with dementia in our project.
Our delegates told us about organisations, programmes and initiatives they were aware of in the area of widening digital participation for people with dementia and, over the next six months, we set about talking to as many of the people who were involved in, and made use of, these services as possible.
We surveyed 23 people online, engaged in a Twitter chat with 107 participants, met 19 groups across the Scottish central belt, and had in-depth follow up conversations with seven individuals to engage with internet users whose lives are affected by dementia.
In January 2017, we held a follow-up event to share and discuss what people had told us during these conversations.