Dementia Friendly Netherton

The What, Why and How?

Data shows that the St Oswald’s ward of Netherton has significantly lower dementia diagnosis rates than both the rest of the Sefton Borough and Nationally.
With this in mind, Sefton CVS have been leading on a project with ReCITE, funded by LSTM to address these low dementia diagnosis rates in the area using innovative and creative methods.

Allocated Project Funds: £20,000

The Community Innovation Team (CIT) has been made up of SCVS, South Sefton PCN, Sefton Public Health team, Alzheimers Society, Healthwatch, L30 Centre, Feelgood Factory, Glovers Lane GP surgery and Sefton memory clinic along with a host of local VCF groups and organisations also supporting along the way.

Phase One of the project saw the Community Innovation Team collect and review data and community insight.

Data analysis from Memory clinics, PCN and GP data highlighted that South Sefton have a different referral process to memory clinics than North Sefton and that there appeared to be some blockages around triage – Whilst not something the project group could look at, this was addressed throughout clinical channels to allow for clinical services to potentially align processes and share learning.

Community insights identified a clear lack of knowledge and understanding around dementia, its symptoms, treatment and the process of diagnosis and beyond.

Some things that particularly stood out where:

Community Members didn’t want to ‘Burden’ their GP
Community Members weren’t sure of which symptoms they should be concerned by.
There was a thirst for knowledge and information around Dementia
There was a lack of understanding of the journey from diagnosis to Living with Dementia
There was no clear resource for finding information

Phase Two focussed on collating a suite of creative assets to address some of the phase one findings. A number of local creative artists were commissioned to produce a variety of visual and audio media creations working alongside Netherton Community Members to ensure a truly co-produced, collaborative set of resources which include:

A Visual ‘Netherton Dementia Journey’ map
‘Did You Know’ Information, Dementia Checklist, Local Community Resources, Wider National Support and information
Short films addressing the knowledge gaps and concerns highlighted during phase one
Short films showing local residents discussing their own Dementia stories
A moving Monologue from Liverpool actress Eithne Brown
A photographic exhibition with quotes from local residents, community champions and those who took part in the project

What Next?
Two of the most important factors for the Community Innovation Team when creating this project were to make sure that it was genuinely co-produced with the residents of Netherton and ensuring that there was a clear legacy element to the project.

The final phase of the project is to share the creative assets with the Netherton Community and then re-do surveys and data analysis to demonstrate any improvements in community knowledge, increases in people attending their GP surgeries to discuss cognition concerns and increases in referrals to memory clinics. This will happen between December 2025 and April 2026.

Plans for the Netherton Dementia Journey map

3600 house L30 postcode mail drop
X5 maps to be displayed externally around Netherton
X10 maps to be displayed internally in key community buildings across Netherton
X5 Community Conversation events planned between now and April 2026 (Everything you wanted to know about Dementia but were afraid to ask’
Visual assets and journey map to be added to SCVS website
Photo exhibition pictures to be printed and displayed in key community venues across Netherton
Assets and Key learning to be shared throughout Dementia forums locally and Nationally

Click the map below to download a PDF version…

Netherton Dementia Journey – Your Story Matters Videos

This series of short films, by Sefton film-maker Roz Di Caprio, includes heartfelt personal stories shared by Netherton residents as well as sensitive guidance and advice given by community providers and health professionals working in Netherton, South Sefton.

The Netherton Dementia Journey in this video includes topics on;