Dementia Support Line
Dementia Involvement Awards 2024
The Dementia Involvement Awards 2024 showcased the best examples of involvement of people with lived experience of Dementia.
About the Awards
The Awards came back with a new look and theme as the Dementia Involvement Awards (previously: Dementia Hero Awards). Building on the success of the 2023 Awards, we are focusing on the theme of involvement, showcasing the best examples of involving people with lived experience.
This is an opportunity to share and learn through excellent involvement from those who do it well and provide inspiration for the future of involvement.
Winners
We were thrilled to receive over 100 nominations from across England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The stories shared this year were truly inspiring, highlighting the incredible efforts and dedication of individuals committed to involving people with lived experiences of dementia.
Our 2024 winners are:
The NIDUS programme PPI group
Matthew Carter
Laura Wright
Hayleigh Kicks (Inn Crowd Leics and YDTG)
Health and Social Care Partnerships Team Steering Group
North Wales Local Services Dementia Support Team
Wakefield Dementia Involvement Partnership
Team Sahara
People's Choice winner
Our People's Choice winner is Laura Wright.
With the support of people with dementia at her workplace, Wolverhampton Wanderers (Wolves), Laura has developed matchday experience initiatives that enable people with dementia to continue attending football matches. These matchday packs have set the gold standard for supporting people with dementia, not just in football, but across other sports as well. Laura has also significantly contributed to Alzheimer’s Society’s ‘Sport United Against Dementia’ campaign. As an associate member of our lived experience steering group, she has collaborated with people with dementia to shape projects that improve accessibility across the sports sector.
Award Ceremony
The Awards Ceremony was at a daytime event in London on Tuesday 10 September 2024.
What do we mean by involvement?
At Alzheimer’s Society we ensure that people affected by dementia can share their lived experience, knowledge, and skills to help plan, shape and influence the work we do.
You can learn more about the ways we involve people below.
What are we looking for?
We are putting out an open call for nominations and want to hear about all the great involvement work taking place in England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Internationally. We are doing things a little differently this year, it’s an open submission and we are open to hearing from everyone.
The overarching criteria for successful nominations will be:
- Demonstrate how people with lived experience have been involved meaningfully.
- Evidence the impact of the involvement work on those affected by dementia.
- Highlight the learning that has taken place during the involvement process.
2023 Highlights
You can watch highlights of the 2023 awards here:
Co-creation
Designing with people with ‘lived experience’, sharing ideas together and incorporating these into the outcome.
Example: designing learning resources.
Co-production
An equal partnership where people with lived and learnt experience work together from start to finish.
Example: creating a service together and influencing how it is commissioned and delivered.
Informing
Sharing stories, information or awareness raising activity.
Example: speaking at an event
Consulting
Asking for people’s opinions on a range of options to influence our decisions and plans. Can be seen as tokenistic if there is no opportunity to influence change.
Example: answering a series of set questions about the layout and content in a publication or designing guidance for research grants.
Engaging
Ongoing conversations to help understand issues, people with ‘lived experience’ express views and discuss ideas for change.
Example: a series of focus groups influencing guidance for a sports venue.