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This paper describes a service improvement project with two aims: to identify and screen all adults with Down's syndrome aged over 30 years in a defined locality using a standardised instrument to establish functional baselines; and to set up a database to facilitate early diagnosis of dementia in this population.

An assistant psychologist used a standardised instrument to screen participants who were identified through contact with health, social, and third sector, and housing services.

Eligible people were identified and screened using an informant‐based measure. Three groups were identified: group 1 showed no significant change; group 2 showed significant change but no signs of dementia; and group 3 showed significant change plus signs of dementia. People with suspected dementia were referred on for further investigation/assessment and supportive services.

Terminology is important in engaging families in a screening project, as is the opportunity to provide information. A proactive screening project can be established by employing working partnerships between intellectual disability and older adult services to aid diagnosis.

Adults with Down's syndrome aged over 30 years in a defined locality can be identified through contact with health, social, and third sector, and housing services. Those identified can be screened using a standardised instrument and a database of screening results established in order to establish baselines against which future re‐screening can be conducted. Partnership working between older adult mental health services and intellectual disability services can improve the diagnostic service to adults with Down's syndrome.

The purpose of this paper is to report on the product of a ten year study, the PhD thesis, “Feminist Systems Thinking: Principles and Practice”, conferred in April, 2012 by the University of Queensland, which contains a set of five practical principles, to assist in policy directions for enhanced community development and project management.

This research adapted Constructivist Grounded Theory to complete Part A, a theoretical imbrication of Cultural Ecofeminism and Critical Systems Thinking. Part B of the thesis is a set of four applied case studies utilising participatory action research.

The findings of Part A of this work established a meta‐theoretical framework in the form of five practical principles to guide project managers at various stages and scales of their work. Part B's evaluation of these principles found that the principles can make practitioners' work clearer, identify gaps to address the multiplicity of often overlapping social concerns, and flag implications for future research and practice.

Embedding the principles in practice can help managers plan, guide and evaluate community development interventions. Further research to establish the principles in a wider number of settings would be advantageous.

Embedding the principles draws in the voices of those on the margins of any project, helping to avoid superficial consultations and oversight of all (human and non‐human inhabitants) affected.

This work is entirely original. There is no known imbrication of the epistemologies selected for this study. In the recent examination of the thesis, the work was commended for its innovative methodological approach and original contribution to knowledge.