Healthy Brain, Healthy Life

Funded by a grant from Alzheimer’s Research UK's Inspire Fund, the Healthy Brain, Healthy Life public engagement project aims to create dialogue and engage with minority ethnic communities around brain health and dementia.

The goal is to increase knowledge around brain health and the positive steps people can take to improve their brain health and reduce their risk of dementia.

The project team use traditional food, music, storytelling and other creative approaches in a series of workshops exploring brain health. Through the workshops, we will also co-create digital stories and culturally tailored resources, such as recipes, to reach wider minority ethnic audiences.

A project dissemination event on Wednesday 26 April 2023 shared experiences of the project, information about the workshops and their impact, and showcased the outputs created by project participants.

Why are we doing this project?

Despite national strategies including the NHS Dementia prevention strategy and the dementia profile on preventing well, there is still a disconnect between healthy lifestyle practices, brain health and dementia, particularly for individuals from minority ethnic communities.

Unlike other long-term conditions which manifest physically, conditions related to brain health and dementia are difficult to talk about and people may attribute causes to spiritual factors, old age, or mental illness. There is a need for initiatives that reduce stigma, create dialogue and learning around the topic area”

Minority ethnic community member

Watch our digital stories

"This project will be a conversation starter and encourage discussions with minority ethnic communities about the broad impacts of dementia and empower people to improve their attitude towards brain health and dementia.”

What are we doing?

We held a series of monthly interactive workshops around five themes to share knowledge and talk about brain health and dementia prevention. The workshops were open to individuals from minority ethnic communities and were all held in person on Bournemouth University's campuses.

The workshops

Our traditional food and our community - healthy eating for brain health

This session will create dialogue on healthy eating to improve brain health, highlighting the nutritional value of traditional foods of our participants.

18 May 2022, 7-9pm at Talbot Campus, Bournemouth University.

This workshop will be an interactive cook-along session with a chef from our local cookery school, Flavour School of cookery. We will make traditional dishes from different cuisines around the world and highlighting ingredients that are important for brain health. We’ll share the food we cook together, and you’ll be able to take away the recipes for the dishes we make during the workshop.

Creating with our hands – expression through art

Participants will create different artefacts including textiles and paper craft to discuss brain health. They will take these home as keepsakes to remind them of the importance of brain health and their experiences of the project.

29 June 2022, 7-9pm at Lansdowne Campus, Bournemouth University.

In this workshop, we’ll be working together with a creative artist to make different artefacts including textiles, collages and paper craft to discuss brain health. You will be able to take these home as keepsakes to remind you of the importance of brain health and your experiences of attending our workshop.

Music, movement and mind – keeping active

This session will use music and dance to stimulate interaction and conversations about brain health and dementia. It will highlight the importance of being active in reducing the risk of developing dementia.

21 July 2022, 7-9pm, Lansdowne Campus, Bournemouth University.

This workshop will be a dance-along session and will feature music and dance from different parts of the world including African and Afro-Caribbean, Latin American, and Indian dances. We will talk about the importance of how keeping active can be important for our brain health.

Stimulating the brain - improving our memory and brain function

Our culture and brain health, storytelling around the fire

This session will use poetry, drama and storytelling to encourage discussions about brain health and dementia.

20 October 2022, 7-9pm, Lansdowne Campus, Bournemouth University.

In this workshop, we will be working together with a spoken word artist to create our own poems and share stories of what brain health means to us. We will create poetry cards which you can take home with you.

The Healthy Brain, Healthy Life workshop team

Meals produced during the Healthy Brain, Healthy Life cooking workshop

Attendees at the Healthy Brain, Healthy Life expression through art workshop

A collage produced during the Healthy Brain, Healthy Life expression through art workshop

Sharing our learning

Digital stories, poems, recipes and other artefacts co-created with participants, best practice guidance and other resources from the workshops will be shared widely via our networks, websites, social media, publications and training events to optimise reach and further engage the wider community.