Strategic and operational issues in sustaining community-based dementia support groups: the Get Real with Meeting Centres realist evaluation part 2.

Collaboration is essential to sustaining community-based initiatives such as MCs, particularly between local community and regional level. MCs need to be vigilant in mitigating pressures that create 'mission drift', as targeting a gap in the care pathway and maintaining a person-centred ethos are central to MCs' appeal. Stable, ongoing funding is needed for stable, ongoing community dementia support. More formal recognition of the value of social model community-based initiatives, helped by improved data collection, would encourage more robust and consistent community dementia support.