Latest News

26th January 2012

SPECAL and the Contented Dementia Trust

The Contented Dementia Trust - incorporating The SPECAL Method
The name SPECAL began its life twenty years ago as an acronym

(Specialized Early Care for Alzheimer’s) and was used to describe a particular understanding of dementia management.

When we became a charity in our own right, the obvious choice of name for the charity was SPECAL.

The success of the Contented Dementia book has brought the SPECAL method of promoting lifelong well-being for people with dementia to the attention of a much larger group of people both at home and abroad than we as a charity could ever achieve on our own.

Our adoption by IPC Media, the UK’s largest magazine publisher, as their Charity of the Year 2011 has highlighted an opportunity to improve the visibility and reach of our charity. To this end, we have renamed our charity ‘Contented Dementia Trust’, which incorporates ‘the SPECAL method’.

This is one reason to make the change to the ‘Contented Dementia Trust’. The other is to give greater focus and clarity to SPECAL as a tried and trusted method, as opposed to an abstract acronym.

Our charitable aim remains the same - to promote lifelong well-being for people with dementia – and we achieve this through using the SPECAL method.

We hope that you will agree with us that the changes will enable people to understand immediately who we are and what we are about.
Our new website is under construction; in the meantime please continue to keep in touch with us through www.specal.co.uk

13th July 2011

Care in the UK

Read what the Care in the UK blog has to say about the relationship between SPECAL and the Alzheimers Society

10th April 2011

Marathon effort by Cliff Jones

TrustedReviews editor Cliff Jones, completed the Paris Marathon this April 10, raising £409 for IPC's charity of the year SPECAL, which offers support to those suffering from Alzheimer's. In 24-degree heat and to the accompaniment of many an "Allez Cleef!", Cliff crossed the finish line after 4:29:37.

Everyone at SPECAL says "Well done Cliff for such a huge effort, and thank you so much."

18th March 2011

Read why IPC Media employees chose SPECAL as their Charity of the Year

IPC Media 'Insider' magazine article

31 Dec 2010

SPECAL chosen as Charity of the Year by IPC Media

IPC Media, one of the UK’s leading magazine publishers, has chosen SPECAL as its charity of the year for 2011, following a company-wide vote.

Penny Garner, founding director of SPECAL, says:

"We are absolutely thrilled to have been singled out by IPC in this way, and it is such good news for families facing dementia, as they can now learn about the possibility of lifelong well-being in spite of the diagnosis. With the number of people affected by dementia at an all time high, IPC has chosen a most opportune moment to support SPECAL and spread our positive message."

Karen Myers, director of corporate communications at IPC Media, says:

"We’re delighted that SPECAL is to be IPC’s charity of the year for 2011. There will be lots of fundraising activities for our employees to get involved with over the course of the year, and the partnership is an excellent opportunity to raise the profile of the charity."

IPC Media Corporate Responsibility Website

01 August 2010

'Understanding Dementia' - a film for SPECAL

In the spring of 2007, Kate lost her mother and, without time to pause for thought, moved in to care for her eighty-two year old father, Jim, who had recently been diagnosed with dementia. Kate got in touch with SPECAL and as a thank you for our help Kate is now using her skills as a film maker to communicate our message.

Kate and the team are donating their time, but help towards insurance, travel, camera hire and so on is much needed. Please consider making a pledge towards the production costs. We do feel this is such a worthwhile venture.