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How to make your Time for a Cuppa event dementia-inclusive

Consultant Admiral Nurse for Children and Young People, Hannah Gardner, shares tips to help ensure your Time for a Cuppa event is inclusive of people living with dementia.

Every three minutes – by the time you’ve made a brew – someone in the UK develops dementia. It’s a huge and growing health crisis yet families are not getting the support they so urgently need.

At Dementia UK, we believe every family affected by dementia should have the support of a dementia specialist Admiral Nurse. They provide advice and support to anyone affected by dementia, whenever it’s needed. But with rising numbers of families impacted by the condition, we can’t reach everyone who needs us.

That’s why this May, we’re encouraging people across the nation to pour a cuppa for our largest annual fundraiser to help families facing dementia.

Hosting a Time for a Cuppa event can be a great way for families, friends, children and local communities to come together and spend quality time with one another, all for a good cause – to help increase the number of dementia specialist Admiral Nurses.

This was the case for Lyn Lee, who’s a full-time carer for her husband, Mel.

After almost 47 years of marriage, Lyn and her husband Mel dreamt of how they’d spend their retirement together. But in 2022, all of that changed when Mel was diagnosed with Lewy body dementia and Lyn became his full-time carer.

Time for a Cuppa hosts Lyn and Mel

Lyn said: “Being a carer can be lonely, so I started crafting to fill the time. In 2024 I held two Time for a Cuppa events with my best friend Carol where we sold our crafts alongside tea and cakes to raise money for Dementia UK.”

“Before sending out the invites to the event, many friends and neighbours didn’t know about Mel’s diagnosis. Hosting a Time for a Cuppa event gave Mel and I the opportunity to speak openly about dementia with those close to us over a cup of tea and a slice of cake.”

Lyn Lee

As dementia is a progressive condition, people living with dementia are likely to be at different stages of the condition and have different needs. To help ensure your Time for a Cuppa event is inclusive of people living with dementia, try to:

  • Avoid hosting an event in the late afternoon or evening when people living with dementia might be tired or are more likely to experience sundowning
  • Greet guests when they arrive at the event and explain what is happening in a clear and simple way
  • Put up clear signage, for example you could stick a picture of a toilet to the toilet door to help people find it more easily
  • Keep distractions in the room to a minimum and turn off the TV and radio
  • Use visual aids to help stimulate memories – you could look back over old photos whilst enjoying a cup of tea and a piece of cake
  • Incorporate activities that everyone of all ages can enjoy whilst sitting down and having a cup of tea such as arts and crafts or a board game like Snakes and Ladders
  • Have an alternative activity available if a person living with dementia doesn’t want to take part in the event

But most importantly, hosting a Time for a Cuppa event should be about having fun! To help ensure the person living with dementia feels included in the fun, it can help to focus on activities they can do and enjoy, rather than what they can’t.

Want to get involved?

Between 1st – 8th May, Dementia UK is inviting people across the country to get together at home, at work, or in care homes to host a Time for a Cuppa event to help support families affected by dementia.

This year, Time for a Cuppa is proudly sponsored by Nationwide Building Society. The sponsorship forms part of Nationwide’s new social impact programme, Fairer Futures, which seeks to address three of the UK’s biggest social issues through charity partnerships – dementia (Dementia UK), youth homelessness (Centrepoint) and family poverty (Action for Children).

Time for a cuppa cakes

By making Time for a Cuppa, you can help ensure no family faces dementia alone. Sign up for your free Time for a Cuppa fundraising pack at dementiauk.org/timeforacuppa.