Gosport MP Caroline Dinenage has qualified as a 'Dementia Friend' at a course hosted in her Gosport Office for her local team and some Gosport Councillors.
The 'Dementia Friends' initiative is led by The Alzheimer's Society and aims to ensure that people living with dementia feel included in their community and gives people an understanding of dementia and the small things they can do to make a difference.
The group of 17 people, heard from a representative from The Alzheimer's Society who explained more about the illness and what can be done to allow dementia sufferers to carry on with their daily lives – be it helping someone find the right bus or being patient in a queue if someone with dementia is taking longer to pay.
Speaking after the event, Caroline said:
"My grandma suffered with Dementia and I saw first-hand the affect it had on her and the rest of the family so I was thrilled to become a 'Dementia Friend' and to have a greater understanding of how people living with dementia in our community can be helped. With an ageing population the challenges of Dementia are only ever going to become greater, so I'm hopeful that this is the first of many such events in our local area, I would like to see us becoming a Dementia Friendly Town."
More than 1 in 3 people with dementia live within the community and so the Dementia Friends initiative is extremely important. There are now already well over half a million Dementia Friends in the UK.
For more information, visit: https://www.dementiafriends.org.uk/.