Dementia friendly cities, towns and villages to "lead a revolution"

The Department of Health has released the details of its Dementia Friendly Communities Champion Group, which demonstrates support from an extensive range of public figures, care charities and business leaders keen to support the Prime Minister’s ‘dementia challenge’.

The Group will investigate innovative approaches to improving community life for the benefit of the rising number of people diagnosed with dementia, a number set to rise as the UK’s elderly population continues to grow over the coming decades.

Cross-sector initiatives to improve public awareness and understanding of the challenge posed by dementia will subsequently be incorporated into a national campaign, to be joint-led by the Department of Health and the Alzheimer’s Society, with the Group due to deliver a progress report to the Prime Minister in September and again in March 2013.

Alzheimer’s Society ambassador, and well-known journalist, presenter and newsreader, Angela Rippon spoke of her personal motivation for getting involved with the project: “My experiences with my mother showed me that small changes can make a huge difference to people’s lives. Society’s beginning to recognise the scale of dementia but we now need to keep the momentum going. The scale of our ambition needs to meet the scale of the challenge.”

Chief executive Jeremy Hughes was pleased to see the amount of individuals, companies and organisations involved: “So many companies signing up to be dementia friendly shows a real commitment to improving people’s lives. From helping people with their shopping to making it easier to do their banking – these organisations are incredibly well placed to push forward real change.”

Care Services minister Paul Burstow thanked the Design Council for their contribution, which has included the running of national competitions to achieve ground-breaking dementia-related design ideas:

“Fear of dementia can leave people feeling powerless and trapped, leaving them isolated and unsupported. That is why we have worked with the Design Council to drive innovation in dementia care. The five winning ideas have the potential to make a big difference for people with dementia and their families.

“The Design Council work is part of our wider drive to make our country dementia friendly. Today we go further with our partnership with the Alzheimer’s Society to challenge cities, towns and villages up and down the land to lead a revolution in how people think about dementia.”

Together with the Design Group and the Alzheimer’s Society, representatives to the Champion Group include Tesco, Lloyds Banking Group, BT and E-On.

Image: Paul Burstow MP, Minister of State for Care Services; courtesy of Liberal Democrats’ photostream