Active inclusion of marginalised communities

Diversity and Inclusion is a cross-cutting theme in our Dementia and Brain Health Delivery Plan 2023 to 2025 , it is embedded throughout all aspects of our work. Whether we’re designing services, developing policies, or delivering projects, we make sure that equality, diversity, and inclusion are at the heart of everything we do—ensuring that everyone, regardless of background or circumstance, can access the support they need.

Our aims

  1. To establish a network with engagement partners from underserved and diverse communities across Greater Manchester and nationally. This will enable us to share best practice, co-develop resources and advance priorities across our dementia initiatives.
  2. To take forward learning from existing projects including the work of our lived experience groups and co-production efforts across Greater Manchester. These initiatives have provided valuable insights into the needs of diverse communities and continue to inform inclusive, person-centred approaches to dementia care.
  3. To collate and review evidence-based public facing resources and ensure that all resources are available within both our Greater Manchester Dementia Care Pathway and are shared widely:
  • Scoping out a model to engage with marginalised community groups and looking for opportunities where we can harness Greater Manchester’s partnership working across all ten localities
  • Scoping out work taking place nationally that’s looking at collecting accurate data and work with locality partners to consider if there’s any learning that’s useful for our work in Greater Manchester

Why This Matters

The 2011 Census showed a growing proportion of people aged 65+ from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) backgrounds, especially in the 75+ age group (NOMIS, 2011). We also recognise that:

  • Many LGBT+ individuals remain wary of accessing mainstream health services due to historical discrimination.
  • Dementia itself can be a source of exclusion, compounding these existing inequalities.
  • There is persistent variation and limited culturally tailored support from pre-diagnosis through to end-of-life care.

There have been a number of reports that highlight the variation and lack of support across the journey from pre-diagnosis to end of life care for people from diverse communities:

We also have anecdotal evidence from a LGBTQ+ online dementia support group that tells us that LGBT+ people living with dementia face particular challenges when accessing services.

Dementia and diversity – a guide for leaders and managers (skillsforcare.org.uk) and LGBTQ+ learning framework (skillsforcare.org.uk) both highlight the importance of training for all staff supporting people living with dementia from diverse and underserved communities.

The Alzheimer’s Society’s recommendation from their pathway report is that evidence-based, post-diagnostic support interventions should be provided for people with dementia and their carers. It also recommends that these must be appropriate and tailored, considering age, ethnicity, religion, gender and sexual orientation

What we’ve achieved so far

  • The lived experience groups and networks, which are at the heart of all Dementia United programmes, reflect some of the diverse communities across Greater Manchester. These groups ensure that we hear from people’s lived experiences
  • We commissioned the translation of the delirium public facing leaflet in to 16 languages Making delirium information more accessible in Greater Manchester This work is a good example of co-development with diverse community groups and co-production with lived experience.
  • We funded partners in the Manchester locality to develop resources for the South Asian community in order to raise awareness. You can find out more about this project here and access the resources on our resources page

What’s next

We’ve developed a draft Equality Impact Assessment to support our commitment to embedding equity in all projects. This is currently out to consultation