Meeting Centres
A Meeting Centre is a local resource, operating out of ordinary community buildings, that offers on-going warm and friendly expert and peer support to people with mild to moderate dementia and their families. At the heart of the Meeting Centre is a social club where people meet to have fun, talk to others and get help that focuses on what they need. Meeting Centres are based on sound research evidence of what helps people to cope well in adjusting to living with the symptoms and changes that dementia brings. The local focus helps agencies and organisations to collaborate and work together effectively in helping people live well with dementia. This can help to counteract some of the fragmentation of care and disconnect that some people may otherwise experience.
Every Meeting Centre is different, and these differences are determined by the needs and interests of the people using them, their families and their local communities. However, there are certain ‘Essential Features' both in the way that Meeting Centres develop and in how they operate that define them. Some of these features may be common with other types of support but taken together they make a Meeting Centre. Although it is recognised that it may be difficult to maintain all the ‘Essential Features’ all of the time, they are important in terms of the validity of the Meeting Centre model. This model, which is based on sound research evidence, helps people to cope well in adjusting to living with the symptoms and changes that dementia brings. Find out more about what makes a Meeting Centre by looking at the 'Essential Features' of a Meeting Centre here.
Following our work on the UK Meeting Centre Support Programme and subsequent'Embed' project, the Association for Dementia Studies is now providing ongoing support to Meeting Centres through a Community of Learning and Practice and the provision of an online training course for Meeting Centre staff and volunteers.
Key resources relating to setting up and running Meeting Centres (including guidelines and booklets for members and carers) can be found via the Meeting Centre blog site, along with useful information sheets. We also have two short videos aimed at two different audiences to illustrate what Meeting Centres are:
For further Meeting Centre information please see:
If you have any queries about Meeting Centres you can contact us via the dedicated email address meetingcentres@worc.ac.uk. Keep up-to-date with Meeting Centre news by following @MeetingCentres on Twitter or signing up to join the Meeting Centres mailing list
Previous Meeting Centre initiatives
- Worcestershire Meeting Centres Community Support Programme - In January 2020, Worcestershire County Council (WCC) announced that it was providing funding of up to £540,000 from the County’s Business Rates Retention Pilot (see press release) to support the setting up and running of Meeting Centres across the whole of Worcestershire for the benefit of Worcestershire citizens. Funding was approved for nine Meeting Centres across the county.
- Lunchtime webinars – Throughout 2020-2022 the Association for Dementia Studies hosted a series of lunchtime webinars to share information about various topics relating to Meeting Centres. These were informal presentations/talks with a view to sharing practice and giving people a chance to ask questions. You can find recordings of the webinars here.