Dementia Friendly High Streetscome to Hampshire

By the end of February, we had launched3 pilot sites for Dementia Friendly HighStreets in Fareham, Lyndhurst and Fleet.The Fareham launch was championed byFareham Shopping Centre and manager,Mike Taylor, who is an enthusiasticsupporter, immediately spotted thepotential benefits to the business, as well

as the feel-good factor from supporting aworthy cause. “If our staff are more awareof dementia, it helps our customers tofeel more confident when they shop withus and it is an important part of ourcustomer service delivery,” stressedMike. Businesses who took part in thelaunch in Fareham include Fareham

One of the aims of the Dementia Friendly Hampshire project is to helppeople living with dementia to retain their independence for as long aspossible. This means putting things in place to enable people to stayconnected to their own community, doing the things they want andneed to do. To achieve this, we need to get the whole community tosign up to the dementia friendly concept and an important part of thatis the development of dementia friendly high streets.

continued over

Shopping Centre, Boots, Asda, Treds,Millets, Costa Coffee, Santander andHalifax.

Lyndhurst is a small town and its locationmeans that it relies predominantly ontourist trade and most of the shops areindependently owned. Being a relativelysmall high street, it provided a goodcontrast to Fareham as a pilot site. Weworked with New Forest DC and theChamber of Trade and recruited 25businesses for the February launchincluding Budgens, Lloyds Bank,Lyndhurst Library and Lyndhurst TeaHouse.

We held a Spotlight on Dementia event inFleet in May and as a result received agreat deal of interest in making Fleet adementia friendly high street. Themanager of the local Boots store was adriving force from the start. “Being apharmacy we have had first-handexperience of customers with dementia,so making sure staff know how best tohelp and support people with thecondition is something that I’mparticularly passionate about. We wantpeople with dementia to be able to carryon with their normal lives and that issomething that Fleet as a community isnow able to help achieve.” Twenty eightbusinesses were signed up for the launchwhich took place in the Hart ShoppingCentre in February. They included Boots,Sainsburys, Hart Shopping Centre,Natwest Bank, Argos and Fleet Library.

All participating businesses receive asticker to display on their premises toshow their staff have had dementiaawareness training and we are alreadyseeing benefits for people with dementia.Security staff at the shopping centre inFareham recently helped a person with

dementia who got into difficulties whilstshopping. The family of the lady inquestion said they had chosen to shop inFareham because “...the staff and shopsare trained in recognising dementia.”

Look out for further dementia friendly highstreet launches this year.

TrainingWe are working with Jackie Pooland PaCT (Partnership in CareTraining) to deliver training toDementia Champions, to supportcustomers who have dementia incustomer-facing businesses.

The training will enable them to:• train other staff• support other staff• support customers with dementia• change the customer environmentThe first course will take place onJune 18th at the Fareham librarytraining room. The day will run from10am – 4pm and the cost is £10 perperson. Places are limited so pleasecall Diane Bizley to book:diane.bizley@andovermind.org.uk or07827 317546.

We’ve all been very busy in the first year of the project and not just withthe dementia friendly high streets. Our co-ordinators have beenworking hard on improving general awareness and understanding ofdementia in the community, which is essential to the successfuldevelopment of dementia friendly communities.

There has been a very highdemand for awareness trainingfrom the start of the project andby the end of year 1, we haddelivered 130 sessions acrossHampshire. The audiences havebeen very varied, including librarystaff and volunteers, local councilstaff and district councillors,customer-facing staff in retail andservice businesses, churchgroups, voluntary sector staff andvolunteers, housing associationstaff, police, GP surgery staff,teachers and students as well as the general public. In year 1, 1305 people acrossHampshire attended an awareness session. We encourage people who attend toconsider going on to do Dementia Friends Champions training if they want to taketheir learning further. This helps to create a sustainable resource in the localcommunity. We have also recruited 11 Dementia Ambassadors and more than 100organisations to the Hampshire Dementia Action Alliance (HDAA) from a variety ofsectors including retail, banking, health, housing, transport and leisure. Peersupport is important to people with dementia and their carers and we are helping todevelop new peer support groups across the county, where they are needed.

New groups include:• A coffee morning and afternoon social group on Wednesdays at The MethodistChurch Hartley Wintney

• Knit and Natter, Noggin and Natter and Memory Café at Sunrise Senior Living inFleet are open to the wider community

• A monthly memory group at The Library in Borden• “Share and Smile,” weekly on Tuesday afternoon at Ashley House in Borden

Contact our local co-ordinators about the HDAA, peer support groups or awarenesssessions in your area. If you would like to read more about what we have achievedin our first year, the full report can be downloaded from our website.http://www.andovermind.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Year-1-Report-final-March-7th.pdf

Year1Achievements

News• Do you live in the Basingstoke area?Do you or someone you know live withearly on-set dementia? We want yourviews on how we could help you tomaintain or develop active, satisfying andenjoyable past times. Come and join us ata social evening on 25th June. ContactJenny Allcott for detailsjenny.allcott@andovermind.org.uk

• Free memory café in Warsash forpeople affected by memory loss.Run by Home Instead Senior Care, it takesplace on 2nd and 4th Wednesday of everymonth at Warsash United ReformedChurch, 55 Warsash Road. For furtherinformation telephone 01489 559007

• Fareham Rotary invites those withmemory impairment and their carersto be their guest at The Wheelhouseat Hillhead from 10 am - 12 pm onthe second Saturday of the monththroughout the summer.Contact Norman Chapman 01489 877378or norman@soberton.org.uk

VolunteersWe have a full programme ofactivities for year 2 of the projectand really need volunteers to helpus to deliver our plan.

We have recruited a number ofexcellent volunteers already but wealways need more. Volunteers arehelping to deliver awarenesssessions, recruit members to theHampshire Dementia Action Alliance,help set up peer support groups,raise awareness and promote actionin their own community and more.

If you have some time to spare andwould like to support this excitingproject, please contact your localco-ordinator or Lisa Langmanon 01264 332297volunteercoordinator@andovermind.org.uk

CONTACT DETAILSPROJECT MANAGER:debbie.morshead@andovermind.org.uk Tel: 07827 318017

AREA CO-ORDINATORS:Hart Rushmoor/Basingstoke and Deanejenny.allcott@andovermind.org.ukTest Valley, Eastleighclare.kavanagh@andovermind.org.ukNew Forestjane.ward@andovermind.org.uk

www.hants.gov.uk/dementiafriendly

Fareham, Gosportdiane.bizley@andovermind.org.ukHavant and E. Hants.sarah.gardner@andovermind.org.ukWinchestervessi.wharton@andovermind.org.uk

Pictures

bykind

permission

ofMandy

Moore