Dementia Friendly East Lothian began in 2014 as a conversation in North Berwick Day Centre between two carers about our experiences living with dementia. We spoke about the daily highs and lows, where we felt welcomed in the community, and the support we got from the Day Centre. We wanted every café to be dementia friendly, to get the help we needed when we needed it, and wondered if there were other carers feeling the same. What about people who didn’t have family or friends providing support?
As our conversation spread, we soon found out we were not alone. We started to make plans, and with support from North Berwick Community Centre, North Berwick Day Centre Centre and Alzheimer Scotland, we organised a Dementia Friendly Community event involving local groups and businesses. Over 100 people popped in to learn about dementia and give their views on what life is like in our town when you have dementia or are a carer.
We supported Dementia Friendly Community days around the county, and in 2015, we held our first DFEL event with the Scottish Community Development Centre (SCDC). The Third Sector Interface (then STRiVE) helped us get funding and hosted us whilst we set up as a Community Interest Company in 2016.
Our events became Gatherings in 2016 when we discussed Area Plans with East Lothian Council Connected Communities Area Partnerships and SCDC. This became our model of bringing together people living with dementia from across the county to compare experiences and views, share ideas, build friendships, and comment on the things that are important to them.
As our confidence and relationships with policymakers and services grew, we discussed the policies that affected us and fed into consultation conversations. This included the East Lothian Dementia and Carers Strategies (with East Lothian Health and Social Care Partnership); Meeting Centres (with Meeting Centres UK); and working with universities including Stirling University (a Scottish Universities Insight Institute event), Queen Margaret University (a Community Dance Event in Musselburgh), and Heriot-Watt University on Brain Health.
We also worked with partners to support innovative and evidence-based approaches to understanding dementia—in particular, the importance of communities and peers in supporting adjustment and quality of life. We worked with the NHS Memory Team to develop community links around the Memory Rehabilitation course, and we facilitated Friendship Groups so participants could stay in touch after their 6-week course. Many of those relationships continued for years, including over the Covid period where these local friendships kept many people connected and supported.
The East Lothian Dementia Strategy has been a key area of work over several years, moving from shaping thinking and content to working together to deliver innovative approaches. At our 2017 Gathering, we asked that the ELHSCP Health and Wellbeing Strategy take a person-centred and wider view of dementia. Our approach was welcomed, and in 2018 we partnered with Stirling and Strathclyde universities to run a SUII event looking at current thinking on dementia policy and practice. The event was very well attended and agreed on the important role of community, generic services, and community assets, as well as the potential of the Meeting Centre approach to provide effective support to people living with dementia and carers across East Lothian.
We worked with interested communities, ELHSCP, and Meeting Centres UK and Scotland, and in December 2019, ELHSCP agreed funding for a new Meeting Centre in Musselburgh, which opened in April 2023. We ran the Musselburgh Meeting Centre as a practical demonstration of what a Meeting Centre was, how it worked, and how to deliver it to support longer-term development in Musselburgh and beyond. The Musselburgh Meeting Centre is now part of the new Integrated Services for Older People in Musselburgh set up by John Bellany Day Centre.
Our wider work in dementia continued alongside the Meeting Centre. In 2023, members from the brand-new Meeting Centre (then only six months old), people from Dementia Cafés across East Lothian, and Friendship Groups met with policymakers and services to hear about the new Centre and talk about priorities for the new Dementia Strategy. As members grew in confidence, in 2024, we held several events carefully designed for people to share their experiences and be part of the wider conversation on dementia, supplemented by our development project to help members tell their stories in their own words as part of our narrative citizenship work.
We continued to work across East Lothian—supporting the East Linton Friendship Group and Creative Connections arts project, backing dementia-inclusive projects in Prestonpans, and supporting events for Dementia Awareness and Carers weeks.
Brain Health was an increasingly common topic of conversation. To capture and support this, our 2024 Gathering featured Professor Alan Gow talking about ‘Nourishing our Neurons’, alongside a choice of playshops to talk about our brains and what we do to feel good.
This was also the starting point for a 6-month Brain Health project in Musselburgh, with a weekly ‘Happy Healthy Brains’ drop-in at the Hollies Hub. This sparked a workshop for a community dance event with Queen Margaret University (‘Strictly for Seniors’) at The Hollies, and introductory seated exercise and yoga sessions for people who were new to exercise with Ageing Well. These sessions also supported the development of the Musselburgh Community Library Garden project. These are vital community projects that people living with dementia and carers have helped create and use, and that remain open to the whole community.
In Haddington, the focus on Brain Health was equally strong, and in 2025 we started a Happy Healthy Haddington project with Support from the Start and the Haddington and Lammermuir Health and Wellbeing Group. This included a weekly Happy Healthy Haddington drop-in at Haddington Athletic Community Football Club and a very successful community event.
Reflecting on the story so far, working together we’ve made a difference. We co-produced the East Lothian Dementia Strategy, championed and set up the Meeting Centre in Musselburgh, and supported community energy around promoting Brain Health. From day one, we’ve made dementia about all ages and all places, embedding intergenerational working with Support from the Start, the East Lothian Intergenerational Network (ELIGIN), and amazing community projects with schools—including Musselburgh Grammar School and Dunbar Grammar School—alongside Creative Connections, the community garden with Musselburgh Library and Musselburgh Meeting Centre, dance with Queen Margaret University and the Hollies Community Hub… and more!
What next?
Looking ahead, we want to share these and many more inspiring and innovative projects that help us all live well with healthy bodies and brains. We want to draw on projects small and large, local to East Lothian (and beyond), that demonstrate what we can do when we come together. Our focus is on what’s possible and what connects us, and dementia will continue to be an important part of that. That means improving brain health now, for future generations of older people, and for all ages to come. Whilst there’s not yet a cure, there are things we can do. And when we get that cure? There will still be many, many reasons to connect with what is good for all our brains.
