Becoming more dementia friendly for World Alzheimer’s Day
21 September is World Alzheimer’s Day, when individuals and organisations are encouraged to take steps to become more dementia friendly in their day-to-day lives. The more people understand about dementia, the better they can support their communities.
In the UK there are 850,000 people living with dementia and that number is expected to increase to 1 million by 2020. There are currently 72,000 people in London who are living with dementia, only two-thirds of people receiving a diagnosis whilst a third do not.
At Londonwide LMCs we are keen to do our bit to support people living with dementia. We have hosted Dementia Friends training for both staff and Londonwide constituents. On 1 October we will be hosting a Virtual Dementia Tour (VDT) for our staff. The VDT is a medically and scientifically certified experience that has been proven to be the closest simulation of what living with dementia is like. Considering that most people know someone, or will know someone who is living with dementia, the tour will increase our staff’s personal development and will also improve the support and care they give. This tour is considered ‘must have’ training for every care professional or family member who wants to understand dementia by walking in the shoes of a person with the disease.
We have been shaping and participating in the Mayor of London’s initiatives to reduce health inequalities, of which Dementia Friendly London is a key strand, including an aspiration to make London the world’s first dementia friendly city.
Resources for practices
We encourage everyone to take part in dementia friendly initiatives during World Alzheimer’s Day and beyond:
- If you would like to know more about training practice staff to become Dementia Friends, resources are available on the Dementia Friends’ website: https://www.dementiafriends.org.uk
- Similarly if practice staff want to learn more about dementia itself, be it the symptoms, diagnosis and the different types of dementia, the Alzheimer’s Society has a vast variety of resources on their website: https://www.alzheimers.org.uk/
- If you want to know what dementia friendly activities, services and groups are available near your practice, this page provides a search function: https://www.alzheimers.org.uk/find-support-near-you#!/search
BMA Ballot (19 Sep 2017)
GP leaders are to use a BMA survey, revealing more than half of practices are willing to close lists to new patients due to workload pressure, to push the Government to...Cyber Essentials (19 Sep 2017)
Cyber Essentials is a government and industry supported scheme to help organisations protect themselves against common cyber-attacks. The award of a Cyber Essentials certificate to Londonwide LMCs should assure you...Website review survey (19 Sep 2017)
We know how important a good website is in communicating with our GPs and practice teams. As our current site has been around for some time we would like your...Practice Managers’ Blended Learning Programme (19 Sep 2017)
Londonwide LMCs are delighted to be launching a brand new blended learning programme for general practice managers at the Practice Manager Conference taking place this November. The innovative course, which...Extended access data collection now open (19 Sep 2017)
As NHS England will have informed you recently, the third bi-annual extended access collection is now open for submission until the end of Friday 29 September 2017. As set out...MDO reimbursement (indemnity) (19 Sep 2017)
Londonwide LMCs Guidance for Sessional GPs and Indemnity Reimbursements from NHS England As part of the...Electronic Referral System: help or hindrance? (19 Sep 2017)
First, we had choose and book, now this has morphed into electronic referral system (eRS). This is a system that is being pushed by NHSE as part of the digital...Updated statement for practices using TPP SystmOne (19 Sep 2017)
Following detailed discussions between the ICO, TPP, NHS Digital and NHS England, TPP has now identified some changes which are intended to address the ICO’s concerns about the fair and...Primary care working at scale Master Classes in September (24 Aug 2017)
There are a series of Master Classes throughout September which will support GP providers in their journey and development as Working at Scale organisations. The events have been organised...Londonwide LMCs' August 2017 newsletter (23 Aug 2017)
...Guidance
We provide expert guidance for practices in our guidance section, as well as an archive of other materials you may find useful.
GP Support
Contact our GP Support team if you need help or advice.
The team provide professional and pastoral support to GPs and practice teams on a broad range of issues.