Dementia Friendly Communities

Yesterday saw the first Dementia Friendly Communities information session which was hosted by BMKALC and to which all our Town and Parish Councils were invited.

The course was presented by representatives of Bucks County Council, the NHS Clinical Commissioning Group and the Wendover Dementia Awareness Alliance.  We learned a great deal.

There is a great deal of misunderstanding around the collection of diseases which fall under the umbrella term, Dementia.  It isn’t a natural part of ageing.  It isn’t about losing your memory, it can affect thinking, communicating and doing everyday tasks.  It is possible to live well with dementia and we should all try to see the person not the disease.

It is the statistics that should be calling us to action.  850 000 people are currently diagnosed, by 2025 this will be over 1 million and by 2050 this will be 2 million.  One in four hospital beds are currently occupied by a person with dementia and 1 in 3 of us will die with dementia.

These statistics are startling and it means we will all be touched by dementia,  we can all help, little things can make enormous differences.

For further details of the small and big things you can do, go to dementiafriends.org.uk.