EMPOWER Dementia Network Plus: Empowering a Meaningful Life for All

Launched in April 2024, the EMPOWER Dementia Network+ is a UK-wide initiative dedicated to transforming dementia care through collaboration, innovation, and lived experience. Our mission is clear: to address inequalities in dementia care and empower people to live meaningful lives, regardless of their background or circumstances.

The network brings together a diverse community; people living with dementia, family carers, researchers, health and social care professionals, and charities, to challenge the status quo and co-create solutions that put people before the disease.

Co-Creating a Vision for Excellent and Inclusive Dementia Care

At the heart of EMPOWER is the belief that those directly affected by dementia must shape the future of care. Through a series of co-creation workshops, we have engaged people with dementia, carers, and professionals to define what excellent and inclusive dementia care should look like. To facilitate these workshops, we use metaphorical garden themes:

  • Tree: Vision for Excellent and Inclusive Dementia Care
    Ideas include integrated services, equal access, and meaningful inclusion.
  • Tool Shed: Tools Needed to Achieve Our Vision
    Suggestions include policy labs, dementia-specific training, and knowledge-sharing forums.
  • Compost Heap: Barriers and Approaches That Need to Be Removed
    Attendees identify obstacles such as stigma, fragmented services, and underfunding.

Since inception, we have facilitated seven workshops with over 120 participants from across the UK. Attendees have shared powerful insights on dignity, equity, and practical support. These discussions ensure our vision is shaped by real experiences, especially those of ethnically diverse communities, in deprived or rural areas, and with advanced dementia and other conditions.

Our team met up in February 2025 and brought together the rich insights and experiences shared to co-develop a vision document for what excellent and inclusive dementia care looks like to people directly affected.

Illustration by: Eugenia Garcia Amor

This living document captures what matters most to our group and sets out seven guiding principles that will shape the way we work together moving forward: (1) driven by values of dignity and compassion, (2) integrated services working together, (3) sustainably funded, (4) a skilled, valued and supported workforce, (5) personalised and holistic, (6) supportive of carers through respite and prioritisation of their wellbeing, and (7) shaped by the voice of lived experts impacting on policy.

This vision is not static. It is a living document, one that will continue to shift and grow as we do. As our relationships evolve and our understanding deepens, so too will the principles that guide us. We see this document not as a finished product, but as a compass, something we return to, revise, and reimagine together.

From Vision to Action: The Policy Lab

On 26th March 2025, the EMPOWER Network collaborated with the Policy Institute at King’s College London to host a Policy Lab. The event united lived experts, policymakers, researchers, and practitioners to identify actionable priorities.

We asked:

‘How can we reduce the most significant inequalities in care for people living with dementia and their families?’

Highlights included:

  • Powerful testimonies from people with dementia and carers, setting the tone for change.
  • Collaborative debates on systemic barriers, from fragmented services to workforce challenges.
  • Clear, policy-ready recommendations to guide EMPOWER’s next steps.

These insights will directly shape our Flexible Funding Call in June 2025, ensuring resources are allocated to projects that tackle the most pressing inequities.

What’s Next?

The work does not stop here. The EMPOWER Network will continue to:

  1. Expand co-creation through workshops, ensuring diverse voices are heard.
  2. Fund innovative projects via our Flexible Fund, prioritising community-led solutions.
  3. Influence policy by sharing evidence from our Policy Lab with policymakers.

We invite everyone, lived experts, researchers, carers, clinicians and advocates, to join us. Together, we can build a future where dementia care is compassionate, equitable and empowering.

This EMPOWER Dementia Network+ is supported by the Economic and Social Research Council, National Institute of Health and Care Research, and Alzheimer’s Society.

Get Involved – Join the Network

Written by: Laiba Ahmad (University of West London) and Emma Wolverson (University of West London) on behalf of the EMPOWER Dementia Network+