Our Story

Partners in Dementia was established in 2017 as a not-for-profit Social Enterprise, supporting people affected by dementia in and around York.

Starting Up Beetle Bank Social Farm

Early days at Beetle Bank Social Farm

Our first service, Beetle Bank Social Farm, opened in 2018 on the outskirts of York. It offered people with dementia the opportunity to take part in the running of a working farm.

Justin Mazzotta was inspired to start Beetle Bank Social Farm through his professional experiences in dementia care. Justin previously worked for national and local dementia charities, and as an activity coordinator in a care home. These experiences highlighted a need for a wider range of services for people with dementia.

The idea for Beetle Bank Social Farm came partly from Justin’s observations of a smallholding he passed regularly, which sparked the thought that a farm could be a perfect setting for dementia-friendly services.

He also recognised a gap for people with dementia from rural communities, as people he met spoke of a need for outdoor or farm-based activities, that reflected their life experiences.

Being outside, helping the farmer with her work

Justin created a summary for a possible service and started speaking with local farmers about whether they could support this idea. Many felt it was too risky because of the dangers involved in farming. But Justin didn’t give up, and eventually, a recommendation led him to Angela Serino, who already owned a public-facing farm at Murton.

After visiting other social farms together and seeing the potential, Justin and Angela decided to collaborate. Justin secured a £6,000 grant, which allowed us to buy some tools and a shed, as well as hold a launch event. This event attracted interest right away, and five people with dementia joined immediately, marking the start of Beetle Bank Social Farm.

Including Other Health Conditions at Beetle Bank Social Farm

In 2020 we opened up Beetle Bank Social Farm so people with other long term health conditions could join our service as well as people with dementia. This approach has worked really well.

Our Work at Beetle Bank Social Farm

At Beetle Bank Social Farm people with dementia and other conditions, staff and volunteers helped Angela with a variety of work. Our regular work included tackling odd jobs, looking after the farm animals, and carrying out woodwork projects. Nigel Farrar joined us in 2021 and soon became a Director. Nigel really kickstarted the horticultural side of the social farm. This is the type of work we still do at Beetle Bank Social Farm.

Setting up our polytunnel for growing fruit and veg

To go to our Beetle Bank Social Farm page click here

Introducing Other Services

At the same time as starting the farm Justin was also studying for a MSc in Advanced Dementia Studies. Through his studies he became aware of other effective ways to support people living with dementia, which started his interest in developing services around Cognitive Rehabilitation and then Breath, Body, Mind.

In 2023 we secured funding for two pilot projects to test them out. The first pilot in 2023 provided Cognitive Rehabilitation support. This was followed by Breath, Body, Mind services in early 2024. Both pilot projects gave positive results and encouraged us to develop them.

Also in 2024 we changed the organisation’s name from Beetle Bank Social Farm to ‘Partners in Dementia’ to reflect these new services.

To read about our Cognitive Rehabilitation pilot project click here

To read about our Breath, Body, Mind pilot project click here

Other Developments

Kathryn Dunn joined us in 2024 as our Director of Community Engagement. Thanks to her, at the beginning of 2025 we were shortlisted by Social Enterprise Yorkshire and Humber (SEYH) for their Social Impact award. Click here for more info on SEYH: https://seyh.org.uk.

Our Current Project

More excitingly, in May 2025 we were awarded £168,380 by the National Lottery Community Fund to deliver a three year project building on our previous work in… what else but: Breath, Body, Mind and Cognitive Rehabilitation!

And now, we’re on the next phase of the journey…


  • CONTACT DETAILS

       Phone: 07932 420726

       Email: partnersindementia@gmail.com