This year, Dementia Action Week took place from Monday 18 to Friday 22 May 2026. Fiona, HILS Comms team member in Hampshire, has written a blog detailing her activities this week. Read on to find out more!
Welcome to my dementia action week blog! The aim for this week is to build better knowledge of dementia and promote the prevention and early intervention of dementia as part of the Alzheimer society appeal. As well as this highlighting and signposting support services for those living with dementia and their careers.
Many events were organised across Hampshire throughout the week to raise awareness and to help the
local community to better understand dementia. I kicked off the week on Sunday by supporting ROMDAG (Romsey Dementia Action Group) information day in Romsey Crossfield Hall where many other local organisations attended including Driving with Miss Daisy and Carers Together had information stalls to highlight the services available in the local area. The event was open by the town crier of Romsey and was also attended by the new elected mayor of Romsey CLLR Colin Burgess, CLLR Nick Adams-King and MP Caroline Noakes. They asked the stallholders questions about what they did to support those with dementia and how they helped support the local community.
On Monday HILS was invited along by the dementia nurses at the Royal Hampshire County Hospital in 
Winchester to their dementia support and information fair. This event was open to the public and was also attended by many hospital staff teams. Around a hundred visitors learnt more about the local charities and organisations in the Winchester area and the role they played in helping those living with dementia. It was lovely talking to the dementia, frailty and discharge team who were saying that they really like the hospital discharge schemed which HILS had set up at Winchester and Basingstoke hospital to help patients return home sooner by having seven days’ worth of main meals for free along with a wellbeing check.
Monday was a busy day as in the afternoon HILS also attended the dementia friendly Winchester event held at Winchester Baptist church. I had a talk and taster with a difference where we talked to the local volunteers and provided them with tea packs to see what add on services we provide for our clients in the area. The Talk was then followed by a community information drop in session for carers to learn more about local support in the area with pop up information stalls from a number of local organisations.
On Wednesday I attended two dementia bus events in Romsey organised by ROMDAG and in Winchester
organised by Home Instead. The dementia bus allows people to experience first-hand some of the challenges people living with dementia may face. It was a good opportunity to talk to the public about HILS and how we support the community. A lot of people from the Winchester District Older Persons Partnership popped along to experience the dementia bus and to network with hour slots for different organisations outside Winchester guildhall.
Thursday I was invited along to Rowland Castle for the annual general meeting of the good neighbour’s scheme who organise travel for people to get to hospital and social appointments. They were visited by a dementia friends’ educator who taught us more about dementia and how to adapt our behaviour and actions to better support those living with dementia. Also, the good neighbour volunteers enjoyed tasting samples of our meals on wheels food and learning more about HILS services in the area.
HILS supports people living with dementia and Alzheimers in Hampshire, Hertfordshire and West Sussex to stay independent in their homes for as long as possible, with nourishing meals on wheels and nutrition support helping keep people stay as healthy as possible. To find out more about our meals on wheels service, please head to the meals page on our website or call us on 0330 2000 103.
