Award-winning comedian, Steve Day will be performing at the Salford Institute for Dementia this month in support of Dementia Action Week which runs from 20th May until 26th May.
Day will be performing his notable comedy set, which discusses the experiences he faced when his father was diagnosed with dementia.
Dr. Jack Wilson, theme leader of creativity for the Institute said: “The reason why I invited Steve was because I wanted to have an evening where we celebrated creative ways of talking about dementia and the relationship between creativity and dementia.”
He added: “Anybody can come along and hopefully, will leave with a better understanding of what it means to interact with people with dementia.”
During the action week, the Institute aims to explore the effects of dementia on social aspects of life and on language communication.
Dr Wilson said the week was about showing how creative people play a “crucial role” in helping those with dementia live well.
The Institute will be hosting a multitude of creative workshops throughout the week in aid of the action week. Sessions taking place on the morning of Monday 20th May will introduce creative people to dementia, with a performance from Steve Day in the evening.
The performance will be followed by a panel discussion involving Day and Karen Dawber, chief nurse at Bradford Teaching Hospital who was pivotal in founding the dementia ward in Warrington and created the twiddle muff, a device which helps reduce anxiety in dementia sufferers.
The final event takes place on Thursday 23rd May with a lecture from Professor Alison Wray from the University of Cardiff, discussing the different causes of the illness.
Save the Dates. Week Commencing 20th May #DAW2019 #dementia pic.twitter.com/zXhFHcnBsn
— Salford Institute for Dementia (@InstforDementia) April 3, 2019
Dr Wilson said: “Alison works in this area that I think is not as well explored as others. She’s working on the interface between dementia research, language, linguistic research and communication.”
Professor Wray also works with Six Degrees, a mental health organisation that works in the Salford community.
Dr Wilson said that one of the aims of the action week, which lies with the institute is the idea that more people of a creative discipline are being introduced to dementia and dementia research, rather than sole support from health practitioners
“One of the aims of dementia action week, and this isn’t just happening within health and society, but we’re introducing creative practitioners to this process.”
He said: “I think if you look at strategies in health care at the moment, a lot of it is going towards social prescribing […] like group therapy and going to workshops.”
Tickets for all the events are available on EventBrite and are free to attend. The events are taking place at different venues around the University campus.
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