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Co-production

PRESENT in East Dunbartonshire: Co-production as default, working with people affected by dementia

The G8 Dementia Summit in London in December 2013 has raised awareness of the dementia challenge and the need to take action. In fact, East Dunbartonshire (with about 100,000 inhabitants) to the north of Glasgow had already started to deal with the dementia challenge in 2010.

East Dunbartonshire is the Scottish local authority with the highest proportion of older people. Some 21% of the local population are over 60 years old, and this is rising sharply; moreover, the population aged over 75 years is set to increase by 71% by 2024. There are currently an estimated 2,020 people living with dementia in East Dunbartonshire. 

Faced with two huge costs - the human cost and the budget costs - we all must find better solutions to the dementia challenge.

We believe that co-production must be part of the answer. This is what PRESENT is about. East Dunbartonshire Council, the Joint Improvement Team and Governance International have embarked on a co-production journey to transform public services and local communities through co-production as default, when working with people affected by dementia.

What is co-production? It’s about public services and citizens working together to harness each other’s expertise, skills and resources. For us, driving improvements in health and social care and promoting dementia-friendly communities are not separate issues. Co-production provides an approach for public services and local communities to do it together!

And what will be co-produced? That’s simple – better personal and social outcomes for people with dementia and for all those people who care for and about them, including front-line staff, managers and commissioners.

And why? Just look at the change in demographics and the declining public resources– what we need is not more of the ‘same’ social services but rather more caring communities. As Councillor Michael O'Donnell, Convenor of the Social Work Committee of East Dunbartonshire Council has suggested, "Co-producing dementia friendly communities offers more effective ways of combining public resources with the assets of citizens and wider communities to improve social and personal outcomes for people affected by dementia."

So, we invite you to be PRESENT in our Workshop at the National Co-Production Conference in Edinburgh on 23 April to learn how public services and local communities can give people affected by dementia a presence and enable them to improve their own outcomes and make a full contribution to their communities.

Participants attending this workshop will get a taster session of our Dementia Co-Production Star.

This toolkit, which is being developed by Governance International, East Dunbartonshire Council and the Joint Improvement Team, helps you to improve:

  1. Changing personal relationships within households and families;
  2. Connectedness to local community networks;
  3. Co-production at an organisational level to work in more enabling ways with people affected by dementia

Representatives from East Dunbartonshire Council, local partners and people affected by dementia will tell you about achievements so far and ambitions for the future - and they will also ask you to share your experiences that we can all learn from. 

PRESENT is supported by people with dementia, carers, CHP, Alzheimer Scotland, Ceartas (advocacy), Carers Link and a National Reference Group, including representatives of Alzheimer Scotland, IRISS, the Social Value Lab and Talking Mats.

 

We are looking forward to meeting you in Edinburgh on 23 April or hearing from you.

Contact Us!

Julie Christie, email: Julie.Christie@eastdunbarton.gov.uk 
Paula Brown, email: Paula.Brown@eastdunbarton.gov.uk
Gerry Power, email: gerry.power@scotland.gsi.gov.uk
Elke Loeffler, email: elke.loeffler@govint.org

 

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