The Challenge

The Alzheimer’s Society Telephone Services are a vital source of support for thousands of people affected by dementia - but there’s a huge opportunity to reach more people, deepen impact, and evolve support to meet changing needs. This project set out to uncover what people need, where the future is heading, and how we can learn from others.

The Objective

This project set out to explore how Alzheimer’s Society can evolve its telephone services to reach more people and increase impact. We wanted to understand:

1. What do people with dementia and their carers want and need?

2. What future shifts & trends should we be considering?

3. What can we learn from others in the sector?

The sprint objective was then to define a new telephone offer specifically aimed at supporting people at the earliest point in their journey (pre-diagnosis).

The Approach

1. Listening to People Affected by Dementia: We spoke to people living with dementia and their carers to understand their biggest challenges and what support would make the most difference. From these conversations, we identified seven core needs that articulate what people are looking for when they reach out for support.

2. Looking at Trends & Future Shifts: We mapped out seven key trends shaping the future of dementia support, from digital-first approaches to more personalised interventions.

3. Learning from Other Charities: We connected with five leading charities to understand how they’re evolving their own support services.
   

Insights were tested through 6 workshops, 20+ individual interviews and collaborative workshops to develop actionable ideas. List of potential opportunities:

1. New Telephone Services - Bold new ideas that could transform support, reaching people earlier, offering more tailored help, and addressing unmet needs: support at the point of/pre-diagnosis

2. Expanding What Works - Scalable opportunities to enhance impact. Two major areas of opportunity: expanding volunteer involvement and AI-powered triage & out-of-hours support, carer peer support by phone, early-onset dementia telephone support. 

3. Business-as-Usual (BAU) Enhancements - Practical improvements to ongoing services, improve efficiency, accessibility, and service delivery without requiring major shifts.

While BAU enhancements are important, many were already in progress, so we focused on the ideas with the biggest potential to shift the dial on reach and impact.

The Impact

1. New service idea with clear roadmap to start piloting.

2. Help Alzheimer's Society explore values of new ways of working, i.e. through audience-led approaches, co-creation with users, etc.

3. Impact potential: quantify total members of people that haven’t received diagnosis. There are currently estimated to be 982,000 people living with dementia in the UK, and 34.4% of those people (337,808) have not received a diagnosis. So 337,808 is the estimated total number of people our new service could be helping.