Age UK’s information and advice resources cover a wide range of issues affecting people in later life, from money and legal issues to health and housing. But the Alzheimer’s Show is a key opportunity for us to connect with – and learn from – a more specialised audience.
Visitors to the Alzheimer’s Show include people living with dementia, people caring for someone with the condition, and people who work in care, health services and research. So, as well as being an occasion for us to provide free information and advice resources to people who might benefit from them, it’s a great chance to get feedback from a diverse cross-section of our readers.
Talking with someone who cares for a parent with dementia is very different to talking with a healthcare professional working with dementia patients. But whether it was for someone to read themselves, to give to a relative, or to use through work, the need for clear, concise information was evident.
Age UK’s information guides are designed to provide exactly that.
Ensuring accurate information
After in-house Technical Advice Support Officers or external peer reviewers have updated the specialist information in the guides, the Information & Advice Content Team refines tone and language to ensure they’re as clear and concise as possible. A Reader’s Panel of volunteers provides more feedback from the perspective of older people and carers.
When updating the look and feel of our guides back in 2019, we also worked with groups run by the Alzheimer’s Society to user-test our ideas and make sure any changes we made were dementia-friendly. This led to us colour-coding our resources and adding a handy bookmark to our Living with dementia guide, which is written for those who have received a diagnosis or are worried about their memory.
As each guide is updated either annually or every other year, they’re as accurate and up-to-date as is practically possible – and free to read or download on our website, alongside our information and advice webpages.
A holistic approach
Age UK isn’t a dementia-specific charity – but our conversations at the Alzheimer’s Show demonstrated that the breadth of our information and advice offering is a real benefit even to a more specialised readership. The effects of dementia are often far-reaching – so information beyond the condition itself is vital for those looking for answers. As well as our trio of dementia-specific guides, visitors to the stand commented on how helpful it was to find resources on power of attorney, support for carers, driving and bladder and bowel issues.
Our welfare benefit guides proved popular, too, with lots of people saying how much they appreciated Age UK’s support in working out what they’re entitled to or help filling out a claim form – whether that was through reading a guide, speaking to the Age UK Advice Line, or getting in touch with their local Age UK.
As in previous years, a notable thread running through the talks at the Alzheimer’s Show was that of ‘living well’ with dementia. Kate White, a dementia care activist who cared for her partner John after his Alzheimer’s diagnosis, encapsulated it in her talk: “As people with dementia and people caring, we’re entitled to participate in life.”
It was a moving reminder of how important it is to take a holistic approach even to condition-specific information and advice – and fresh motivation to think about how we can keep improving the connections between the different strands of our information and advice here at Age UK.
Living with dementia
A dementia diagnosis can be overwhelming, but our information and advice can help.
