Top tips for writing an effective Dementia Hero Awards nomination

1. Yes, you can nominate yourself! You know better than anyone the fantastic work you’ve been doing, so make sure you get that recognition. 
2. Your nomination doesn’t need to be very long to be good – a few sentences is enough for each section. Keep your explanations clear and to the point, as you’ll only have 200 words for each question.  
3. If it’s simpler, you can provide information in a bulleted list, but please write in full sentences as much as possible. 
4. It may be easier to draft your nomination in a document first (like Microsoft Word) first and copy and paste it into the nomination form. That way you can save your nomination as you go, so nothing is lost if the web page were to crash. And you can check you are not over the word count.
5. Write a clear opening statement in the summary section to show the judges straight away that the person is worthy of being nominated. 
6. Make sure your examples match the criteria for that award – provide lots of examples and evidence to support your nomination. That way our judges can see how much impact you’ve had.  
7. You can repeat information that you’ve entered to answer the questions in the summary and person profile, to save you time but try to not copy and paste the same response in different sections.  
8. Feel free to use quotes and case studies – anything that will help back up your nomination. This will help your nomination stand out from the crowd.
9. Does anyone else know the person you are nominating? Ask them to submit a nomination too. Having examples from different perspectives will help the nomination. 
10. Remind yourself of the most important element of your nomination. How has the nominee involved people affected by dementia? Talk about the impact, but also participation and involvement too.

The nominations for the Dementia Hero Awards 2023, sponsored by Tunstall Healthcare are now open until Wednesday 30th November 2022.