Organisations in Walsall have been recognised for becoming dementia friendly.
The Mayor of Walsall, Councillor Marco Longhi presented organisations with a Kitemark recognition to celebrate them becoming a Dementia Friendly Community organisation.
Accord Housing Association, has been supporting this initiative by upskilling the staff from organisations who come into contact with people with dementia. The scheme enables people with dementia to feel confident, respected and understood when out in their local community.
The programme has been running for six years and during that time a number of organisations have been successfully trained to become more dementia friendly.
A report by the Alzheimer’s Society found two thirds of people with dementia do not feel they can make a contribution to their community. Despite wanting to do more, people feel restricted by their condition or health and hold low expectations about being able to contribute.
Dementia Friendly Coordinator, Pat Roberts from Accord said: “There are many people in Walsall with a diagnosis of dementia and by encouraging businesses to sign up to this initiative, it gives people with dementia more confidence to be a part of the community and not to feel shut off and isolated. By working with as many organisations and businesses as we can, we will be breaking down this stigma and barriers.
The programme is funded by NHS Walsall Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and the project aims to also raise awareness of the condition, which affects more than 2,100 people within the Borough.