Peer Support Projects:
The core function of Ceartas is to provide Independent Advocacy support to adults in East Dunbartonshire who fall within our target groups.
For some of our target audience, however, we feel that it is not good enough to sit back and wait for them to contact us: we would rather have regular contact with them so that they remember that Advocacy is available to them, and so that we can start early interventions when action is required. This is particularly relevant for people living with dementia.
Peer support is a model where mutual support is offered by people with the same lived experience; where one person with a diagnosis can share experiences with other people with a diagnosis, and where one carer can share experiences with other carers. Professionals can organise and facilitate the setting, but the actual support is delivered by peers.
This is the model that Ceartas uses in our De Cafés and other dementia support projects, and it sits very comfortably alongside the models of Collective Advocacy and Routes Into Independent Advocacy that Ceartas promotes.
With the addition of some generous support from the Life Changes Trust, Ceartas is now able to facilitate five De Cafés across East Dunbartonshire, as well as other short-term Peer Support projects.
The De Cafés are monthly Peer Support cafés. The original Ceartas De Café in Kirkintilloch has been running since 2005, and now has been joined by additional De Cafés in Bearsden, Bishopbriggs and Lenzie. For more information about De Cafés, see the De Café page and the What’s On page.
As well as these cafes and with additional support from other funding sources like The Flightpath Fund, The Kells Trust, and donations from friends of the organisation, we have also facilitated a number of activity-based Peer Support projects like Faces of Dementia, Dementia Walking Football, and Golfing Memories.
