Churches urged to become dementia-friendly communities

Catholic charities are calling on churches to become dementia-friendly communities.

The message from Catholic charities coincides with the National Week of Prayer and Awareness of Dementia (12-19 March).

Kathleen Pitt, director of Nugent Care, which runs a number of care homes as well as care in the community projects for people with dementia said church communities and parishes, working together with charities and the health and care system, can “play an important role in creating care environments for people living with dementia that enable people to feel safe, supported and which help to promote independence and reduce distress and anxiety”.

Ben Bano, director of ‘Welcome Me as I Am’ which specialises in training parishes, deaneries and chaplaincies on dementia issues feels it is “important that parishes and faith communities welcome and include people with dementia as well as their carers”.

He added: “Through our ‘Welcome me as I am’ project, we seek to promote understanding about the causes and treatment of different forms of dementia, how we can adapt church buildings to be more dementia friendly and help parishes to develop the skills to enable them to work with people with dementia as well as provide liturgy and worship for people with advancing dementia.”

“Many people with dementia become increasingly anxious and feel isolated and churches have an important role to play in being places of welcome,” according to Rebecca Hedges, convenor of the CSAN “Caritas Social Action Network), the social action arm of the Catholic Church in England and WalesOlder People’s Services Forum.

CSAN’s Older People’s Services forum is currently developing a Dementia Toolkit for parishes to create a person-centred approach to people with dementia.

The toolkit will look at how parishes can meet the physical, sensory and emotional needs of people with dementia and how the Church as a whole can contribute to the wider network of outreach services available.

Nugent Care is currently gathering signatures for a petition to raise awareness of dementia and the importance of dignity in care for people living with dementia.

To sign up to its petition visit: http://www.nugentcare.org/articles/nugent-care-dignity-in-care-campaign

There are currently 800,000 people with dementia in the UK and the number of people affected is estimated to rise to over 1m by 2021 and 1.7m by 2050.