The Claremont Project has launched the findings of its better brain health project on community activities reducing the risks of dementia. Claremont’s new report ‘From Fear to Fun’ shares their learning that an effective way to engage people in dementia protective activities is to celebrate their intrinsic rewards and enjoyment.
Moving from fear to fun, community centres can ‘flip the script’ on a difficult topic that people may otherwise seek to avoid and disengage from. They’ve come up with an acronym, FLIP, that spells out findings about what worked well in the pilot:
- Fun – Participants engaged with the activities themselves rather than the health/prevention framing and emphasised their desire for joyful and learning experiences.
- Low-cost – Dementia risk intersects with social and economic inequality. Free, community-based programmes facilitate the regular engagement that is necessary to make significant reduction to dementia risk.
- In-person – The community centre model provides an existing structure for routine, belonging, and repeated contact.
- Physical – Physical activities were more popular and more consistently attended. A variety of movement-based activities could be a strong anchor within multi-domain dementia risk reduction programmes.
See the findings here: Brain Health Programme – Claremont Project
