Councillors from the Council have been learning about what it is like living with dementia thanks to two Dementia Friends Champions.
They took part in an hour-long session on Thursday 13th November, to help them understand more about the condition and its effect on people so that they can support people, including customers, relatives and friends, better.
The session was run by two of the Council’s Dementia Friends Champions, Lisa Elliott and Karen Lunt.
Dementia Friends Champions have already run a number of sessions with care teams, pharmacists, a local supermarket and with colleagues at the NHS. Dementia Friends is an Alzheimer’s Society initiative to improve understanding and awareness of dementia in the community.
Councillor Simon Allen, Bath & North East Somerset Council’s Cabinet Member for Wellbeing, said: “We’re committed to raising awareness of dementia and its effects.
“By taking 45 minutes to learn more about dementia, we can continue to make Bath and North East Somerset a dementia friendly place to live.”
To meet the Council’s Health and Wellbeing Strategy, the NHS Bath and North East Somerset Clinical Commissioning Group and Council have commissioned Dementia Support Workers to provide support to people recently diagnosed or in the process of obtaining a diagnosis of dementia and also their carers. This service is delivered by the Alzheimer’s Society.
Bath & North East Somerset Council also has five other projects focussing specifically on dementia:
- Memory Technology Library to support people with dementia to remain as independent as possible (provided by Sirona);
- Integrated hospital and community support using dementia co-ordinators and additional mental health liaison nurses in order to ensure patients with dementia get treatment and support personalised to them and to facilitate timely discharge (provided by the Royal United Hospital);
- A Rural Independent Living Support Service to help people living in rural areas access services (provided by Curo);
- A Home from Hospital service to support a successful discharge from hospital (provided by The Carers Centre and Age UK B&NES);
- A Community Hospital and Care Home Support and Assessment service to help community hospitals and care homes better people in their care with dementia (provided by Avon & West Wilts Mental Health Partnership).
If you’d like to find out more about running a Dementia Friends Information Session in your business, call 01225 477941/396131 or contact Dementia Friends at www.dementiafriends.org.uk for details.
