For too long, dementia care has overlooked the cultural and social needs of the global majority. Families from Black, Asian and other minoritised ethnic backgrounds have found themselves navigating a system that often misunderstands them or excludes them entirely. One nurse, with over 35 years’ experience and deep personal insight, set out to change this.
Michelle King began not as a business leader, but as someone driven by compassion and lived experience. “Having done some work in the Liverpool area, I heard, witnessed and was involved first-hand with the experiences that people shared with me – the feeling of being let down, the mistrust in services that are meant to protect them,” she says.
With her first Active Minds dementia day centre already open in Crosby, she was determined to offer something complementary to the reputation she had established – and different from existing facilities in central Liverpool: care that recognised culture, respected lived experience and built trust. But bringing this vision to life required more than passion – it needed the right support, networks and investment.
Through her role as an advisory board member at Liverpool City Region’s Race Equality Hub, Michelle connected with Innervision, joining its business support programme, led by BlaST director Joanne Anderson. “It’s been absolutely amazing. Within a year – the networking, the coaching, the training sessions – there was no holding back,” she smiles.
Through the programme, she was introduced to BlaST and Kindred and met Erika, Adele and Nicola. Initially, the idea of taking on investment was daunting. “I was very apprehensive about investment – I’ve never taken investment in my life. The fear, and apprehension. What if this goes wrong?” she says.
Kindred’s mission is to increase the impact of the social economy across Liverpool City Region, and Michelle’s work addresses a critical gap in dementia care, with clear impact. Nationally, nearly one million people are diagnosed with dementia, yet ethnic minority communities remain vastly under-diagnosed. “In Liverpool, there are about 42,620 people. The dementia register with the Memory Clinic has 4,000 people, but not one person is from an ethnic minority background,” she explains. This is despite research showing that dementia rates in Black communities are 20% higher than in white communities.
Barriers range from communication gaps and cultural misunderstandings to a historic mistrust of healthcare systems. “They walk into a GP surgery and are often dismissed. Or they are told ‘nothing is wrong with you’. People don’t follow up. So this constant rejection has made the community withdraw.”
Michelle’s approach is holistic: providing therapy through interaction, cognitive stimulation and community connection rather than defaulting to medication. “Our communities don’t want to be bombarded with anti-psychotics or dementia drugs that have never been tested on them.
“What they want is therapy: cognition, interaction, engagement,” she says. Through patient, transparent guidance from the Innervision, BlaST and Kindred teams, Michelle’s confidence grew.
“They instilled confidence in me, helped me understand what a cash flow is, how you put it together. Erika worked with me, and Ryan. The positive support was incredible. There was such a big trust that I developed with Kindred – I felt transparency, very honest. The wraparound support was still there. And there was no pressure.
“The bigger benefit from investment is 0% interest. They were very clear as to how the payments would be taken. Everything was explained in such a manner that it was a win-win situation. There was no way I was backing out.”
But this was about more than finance. For Michelle, the partnerships gave her a network she could rely on – something that had been missing in her previous experiences of professional isolation and discrimination. “I was lonely, I was isolated,” she says. “I found there is so much support, but communication is disjointed and it can be hard to identify it. Since I’ve started, there’s no holding back.”
Beyond dementia care, the centres also provide respite for carers, addressing loneliness, burnout and social isolation. “It’s about enhancing the quality of life for everybody concerned, no matter what community or background and allowing carers to have a life of their own,” says Michelle. The first Active Minds Centre opened in 2018, proving the concept worked. Michelle had a model that communities trusted and valued. With the support of Innervision, Kindred and BlaST, she took the leap to expand her vision.
In May 2025, Michelle received social investment from Kindred to open the second Active Minds centre – and she has plans for seven more across Liverpool City Region: “Change is going to happen,” says Michelle.