Ashford Place trials a new counselling service for people living with dementia courtesy of long time partners ICAP who are funded by the Irish Government’s Emigrant Support Programme.
Colin Gannon
A new “innovative” counselling service for Irish people in the UK diagnosed with dementia is being launched on a trial basis.
The Solas project, launched by Ashford Place – a charity which helps vulnerable members of the North London community – is in a testing phase.
The service includes 10 weeks of one-to-one counselling for those who have just been diagnosed to “give them a space to process the diagnosis and start thinking about their fears and concerns” as well as a fortnightly support group for their family members or main carer.
The group is co-facilitated with a dementia specialist and a psychotherapist, and, Ashford Place said, “will provide a space for them to think about their feelings, along with activities or materials to help them to build a self-care and services tool kit” to help alleviate the strains of the illness.
