DAN was funded for three years by the Dept. of Health for EMDAP to explore the needs for support through independent advocacy of black and minority ethnic people with dementia. This was inspired by the work amongst such communities by Advocacy Plus (then WASSR) in the London Borough of Westminster. With the government's commitment to addressing health inequalities and the arrival of the National Dementia Strategy in England, it was a good time for the project to happen. The project worker was herself from a minority ethnic community and spoke Arabic which helped with her contact with those in Arabic speaking communities. The project focused on two kinds of organisations:
The project made contact with advocacy providers through DAN members, DAN networking events and other national events, providing training sessions and workshops. These raised people's awareness of diverse cultures and explored the barriers that they experience in accessing services. It also considered the barriers that service providers experience and enabled them to think about how they might address some of the challenges. "We thought saying 'access was for all' would mean BME communities would use us. This is not the case. We now know we need to do a lot of work with local groups to make this happen. Working with BME groups is very hard to get off the ground. Other things are more easily done and use fewer resources, so are more likely to be allocated funds" (An Advocacy Worker)
The project also did some considerable work with a wide variety of minority ethnic communities, making contact with community leaders, providing dementia awareness sessions for community groups and opening up discussions about a subject that was not often talked about or understood. A key part of the project was also informing them about the role of independent advocacy and equipping the group workers with knowledge and information. "We need to get into the BME communities, raise awareness of dementia and show it isn't a problem families have to struggle to deal with alone. This is a long slow process, often leading to high frustration on both sides. Often a lot of discussion takes place, but it doesn't seem to move the issue forward and become action. We need to understand cultural differences and how these relate to expressing wishes and needs effectively." (A BME Community Group Worker)
The project established simple but highly effective good practice guidance to ensure that dementia advocacy is accessible to BME elders.
View the good practice guidelines on working with BME communities.
Download the EMDAP leaflet 'Bringing Dementia out of the shadows for BME Elders' - hard copies can also be ordered from DAN, please contact us to tell us how many you want and where to be delivered to.
Download the EMDAP Evaluation Report
If your advocacy organisation works successfully with a minority ethnic community and you would like to tell us about it please contact us. It would be good to share your experiences, achievements and good practice on the website or at a networking event.