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
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