North Yorkshire Advocacy Becomes Dementia Aware
Via Harrogate Informer [25 May 2016]
In support of Dementia Awareness Week, (15 May to 21 May), volunteers from the North Yorkshire Advocacy, a charitable organisation that helps vulnerable people through circumstance or disadvantage, became Dementia Friends through an hour long awareness session hosted by Sheena Van Parys, owner of Home Instead Senior Care in Harrogate, Ripon and Thirsk.
Picture Source: Harrogate Informer
The Dementia Friends initiative, which is backed by the government, aims to increase dementia awareness and change the way the nation thinks.
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Dementia Friends: How to make a difference to someone living with dementia
Via Maldon Standard [25 May 2016]
Picture Source: Maldon Standard
NOBODY can get into the mind-set of someone living with dementia. But Jane Gilby puts it as well as humanly possible when she gives us analogies of how life can be incredibly scary, frustrating and lonely for someone with the disease.
When invited to be part of a dementia friend session run by Jane, the lead dementia nurse at Basildon Hospital, I jumped at the chance. By sacrificing one hour out of my day I got to learn how to make even the smallest difference, how to be that bit more patient and aware when it comes to looking out for people living with dementia – notice I said ‘living’ with not ‘suffering’ because as Jane asks: ‘How would you constantly like to be referred to as a sufferer’?
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Workers at a Hartlepool store sign up to become dementia friends
Via Hartlepool Mail [24 May 2016]
An initiative to help people develop an understanding of dementia has got the backing of a Hartlepool business. Specsavers workers nationwide are completing a dementia awareness programme. Ian Walker, store director of Specsavers in the Middleton Grange Shopping Centre in Hartlepool said: ‘Being more aware of dementia is an incredibly positive development for our team and our offering to customers. I have seen the impact of dementia at close hand and highlighting this disease is very important; the impact on families can be devastating.
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‘We’re all official Dementia Friends’
Via Dunstable Today [24 May 2016]
A Luton law firm has encouraged its staff to take free training to become Dementia Friends. Pictons spokeswoman Deborah Saini said: “We invited dementia champion Maria Collins from Home Instead to help us learn a little more about living with dementia and to turn that understanding into action.
“Anyone of any age can be a Dementia Friend and discover small ways in which they can make a big difference to people affected by this terrible, incurable condition.”
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Bedfordshire Police cadets sign pledge to be Dementia Friends
Via Bedfordshire On Sunday [20 May 2016]
Picture Source: Bedfordshire on Sunday
BEDFORDSHIRE'S Police Cadets and Cadet Instructors are now officially Dementia Friends, after receiving training as part of Dementia Awareness Week.
Dementia Friends is a social action movement started by the Alzheimer's Society, which aims to raise awareness of dementia and turn that awareness into action. The sessions help to challenge perceptions and dispel some of the myths around dementia.
The force's Luton and Kempston Cadet Units received the training earlier this week at force headquarters in Kempston and will now wear Dementia Friends badges to signal they are Dementia Friends.
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People of Swindon join forces to confront dementia
Via Swindon Advertiser [20 May 2016]
Picture Source: Thomas Kelsey, Swindon Advertiser
MORE than a hundred people from across Swindon took part in a special event in the town to mark this year’s Dementia Awareness Week. Alzheimer’s Society staff and volunteers, with support from Zurich Community Trust, encouraged residents to confront dementia by taking part in the town’s first live outdoor Dementia Friend’s sessions on Thursday at Wharf Green.
Dementia Friends is an Alzheimer’s Society initiative that aims to help people understand what it might be like to live with dementia and turn that understanding into action. The charity aims to have four million Dementia Friends by 2020 and now residents in Swindon are playing their part.
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An illuminating session on the 'flickering lights' of dementia
Via St Helens Star [20 May 2016]
DEMENTIA affects one in 14 people in the UK and one in six of people aged 80 plus. As part of a nationwide awareness raising campaign, almost 8,000 St Helens residents have signed up to become 'dementia friends'. But what does that mean? BEING someone with no personal experience of having or knowing someone with dementia, I'm probably in a minority. To gain more of an insight into the illness, I decided to attend a dementia friends session at St Helens Central Library.
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Housing staff become dementia friends in a bid to fight stigma surrounding condition
Via Echo [17 May 2016]
STAFF at a housing association have joined residents in interactive sessions to fight the stigma surrounding dementia.
More than 25 employees from Rochford Housing were joined by residents, board members and maintenance staff to mark Dementia Awareness Week.
Michelle Flowers, housing officer for Rochford Housing, who attended one of the sessions, said: “The session was very enlightening and worthwhile. The session leaders were very informative and knew what they were talking about through their own experiences. I particularly enjoyed the interactive parts.”
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Dementia Awareness Week at Salford Royal
Via Salford Online [16 May 2016]
Picture Source: Salford Online
Staff at Salford Royal have been showing their support for Dementia Awareness Week by becoming Dementia Friends. Porters, security staff, receptionists and domestic staff are just some of the colleagues who have been attending informative sessions designed to find out what it is like to live with dementia and what they can do to help vulnerable patients and visitors to the Trust.
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Youngsters get dementia friendly
Via The Advertiser North Yorkshire [15 May 2016]
Picture Source: The Advertiser North Yorkshire
PUPILS are learning about what it means to be a Dementia Friend and what a difference it can make to people’s lives. Youngsters at St Mary’s Roman Catholic Primary School in Richmond are taking part in the sessions ahead of Dementia Awareness Week, May 16 to 22, to help spread the message of what being a Dementia Friend means.
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