Dementia-friendly templates: examples and tips

People with dementia, and carers, informed the development of the original versions of the attached documents. To share them on our website, we've put them into pdf format. That's because lots of people read our website using devices that get on better with pdfs than with Word. In practice, Word can be helpful to edit the documents - for example it can be a good programme to use if you want to make adjustments such as large print or audio versions, easily, quickly and at little or no cost.

Use Your Voice! Short post-card style information with contact details

This is based on a template developed and used successfully with people with dementia by Alzheimer's Society's team in Shropshire. Staff at Alzheimer's Society can use an editable version to tailor information to their needs, using the white space on the reverse of the card to provide basic details about the opportunity for which they are recruiting people affected by dementia. The editable version is linked to data enabling management to have a record of all the uses of the template to support involvement.

Checklist of information to tell people preparing to attend your activity

This is based on a template form Alzheimer's Society has used successfully for several events.

Example Information about me form

This is based on a template form Alzheimer's Society has used successfully for several events where the organisers were not familiar with the inclusion needs of attendees.

• Sending this out with the invites, set expectations that we wanted to meet people's individual needs and enabled planning to happen
• Some people affected by dementia told us that they would not normally feel able to attend an activity, but using this approach encouraged them to have confidence that we were dementia-aware and cared about their experience. So this increased the range of people with dementia we were able to involve.

Form used to collate details from Information about me form

This is based on a spreadsheet we have used to support group and event planning by collating details from Information about me forms and follow up conversations (to check about diet, train times and ticket collection and so on). Having this information easy to see in overview can help check you have details you need for accessibility. It can also be useful to have to hand on the day in case of trains being delayed (for example to text or phone people to check they are not worrying about being late or not knowing why their train is stopped unexpectedly en route), taxis needing to be rearranged on the day and so on.

Participant information sheet

This is based on one used for priority question-setting in a focus group with carers.

Reminder letter template 

This is based on a template developed with people living with dementia in our Focus on Dementia Network. Members of the network at lots of its groups told us that having a reminder letter about two weeks before a meeting is helpful:

• it can be highly visible (especially if printed on bright-coloured paper) pinned alongside their calendar. Some people told us this offered them a feeling of reassurance too as they were less likely to worry that they might forget to attend a group activity which they enjoy.

Example Agenda for a service review meeting

This is based on templates used by our teams when working with people living with dementia, and feedback from groups in our Focus on Dementia Network about what they find helpful.

Example of a 'group contract' for discussion activities 

This is based on ones used in our Focus on Dementia Network groups.

Example of handouts for a focus group 

These are based on ones used to enable people living with dementia to improve an Alzheimer's Society Strategic Plan.

Example of record of group discussion 

This is based on a template developed by a group of people living with dementia in our Focus on Dementia Network, and feedback from around 60 people living with dementia from across England, Wales and Northern Ireland about how they like to get records of their discussions.

Example of themes identified in coding feedback from group 

This is a pdf of a filtered spreadsheet based on what people living with dementia gave as feedback in group discussions as part of a service review for what, as a result of the review, became the Focus on Dementia Network. Alongside their results you can see the coding for themes used to analyse the responses. The original was longer. The use of words for coding helped to make this a document that could be discussed with people with dementia and others. The consistent use of words for themes also enabled the filters function of the spreadsheet to select to view only particular themes when it was preferred not to see all of them at once. 

Example of report updating on progress during an ongoing project 

This is a pdf of a presentation which was shared in whole, or in part, according to people's access needs and preferences. It tells the story of an ongoing project - to develop this resource - so that people can see the feedback, ideas that have shaped it, and what has been done as a result of feedback and working together with people affected by dementia, commissioners and people working in health and care services. 

Useful templates from other organisations

DEEP environment checklist - indoor

DEEP environment checklist - outdoor

King's Fund dementia-friendly hospital: environmental assessment tool