All About You: a retrospective review

Cotman Housing asked HACT to evaluate their All About You project, which aimed to support carers of people with dementia to be more physically active. Over half a million people in the UK care for someone with dementia and most are not doing physical activity or sport.

Funded by Sport England and delivered in partnership with AgeUK, the project was due to run from 2018 to September 2021, but because of low participant numbers and the Covid-19 pandemic, it ended early.

Whilst the project ended early and did not generate the amount of data anticipated for evaluation, HACT completed a retrospective review based on engagement with Cotman staff through the project.

The project confirmed that there are many carers who need support but are not receiving it. Although the number of participants was low, this does not reflect a lack of interest on the part of carers. Many were receptive, indeed keen, to be more physically active. The everyday realities of caring for someone with dementia negated this desire.

Our key findings were that:

• Whether they wanted to or not, many carers just did not feel able to take time out for themselves to exercise. Supporting them to do this is a neccessary first step, before physical activity can even be considered.
• Any future project promoting physical activity amongst carers should consider it a two-step process. Support the carer to take breaks from their caring duties first, and then work on getting them to use that time for physical activity.
• Support needs to be bespoke, to match the specific needs and capacity carers have.
• Projects like All About You have to be resourced effectively. It takes time to engage with carers.
• Similarly, projects need longer lead- in times. Allowing a period of time for engagement and promotion prior to the project starting would increase the chances of success.
• Be prepared to be inventive. Cotman had planned innovations, such as sending trainers into participants’ homes, that could have increased participation.

Carers are a group who need all the help they can get. It is unfortunate this project did not work as hoped, but Cotman’s experience adds to a body of evidence and will hopefully support other organisations to deliver effective services to carers.