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Empowered Conversations joins Age UK Salford

Published on 16 December 2020 01:51 PM

Salford-based Empowered Conversations has joined forces with Age UK Salford's Dementia Support Services.The organisations had previously worked in partnership to deliver Empowered Carers, an innovative pilot offering one to one support for family carers of people living with dementia over the last two years.    
 

Chief Executive of Age UK Salford, Dave Haynes, said: “We are delighted to have the Empowered Conversations team transfer its services to us. It’s a tried and tested programme with a strong research base and will only enhance our existing and well-established Dementia Support Services and continue to improve support across the city. 

“During the pandemic, it has been more important than ever to work closely with people affected by dementia. We have ventured into new territory as an organisation, it has been a vital move to ensure that those people who were used to face to face contact or 1-2-1 calls are still seeing a familiar face and are being encouraged to connect with others and join in with fun online activities that are also good for their health and wellbeing.” 

Together, Age UK Salford and the Empowered Conversations, who have moved over from Six Degrees Social Enterprise, adapted from face-to-face sessions to virtual meetups for carers and people living with dementia from weekly carers groups to quizzes, music sessions, virtual discos, seminars, courses, and masterclasses.   

Emma Smith, Project Manager for Empowered Conversations, says Covid-19 acted as the catalyst for a spike in demand for people affected by dementia and their carers, which initiated new ways to stay connected with those that relied on them. 

She added: “Through Empowered Carers and delivering Empowered Conversations Online – we were in the fortunate position of already running some of our services via Zoom, so in terms of adapting to the technology, it has been great.

  “People affected by dementia have made the move to online to keep connected, those that didn’t continue to be supported by Age UK Salford through regular phone calls.

 “We are very excited to be a part of the Age UK Salford team to increase support across the city. We want to be there for people from diagnosis to living well with dementia, to end of life and bereavement, and being part of such an important charity will only increase our reach.” 

For more information on how you can access the online sessions go to www.empowered-conversations.co.uk and for more information on Age UK Salford support services go to www.ageuksalford.org.uk