Dementia Friendly Plymouth Celebration

TV presenter Angela Rippon will be hosting an event to celebrate Plymouth based organisations who have committed to being Dementia Friendly.

The Dementia Friendly City Celebration brings together organisations and businesses from across the city who recognise the challenge that dementia poses, both for the individual, the organisation and the wider community. It is estimated that there are over 3000 people within Plymouth with dementia, with two-thirds of those living independently within the community.

The event is on 26th August 2014 from 5pm in the Reception Room, at Council House. Angela Rippon is the Ambassador for the Alzheimer’s Society and will be supporting the event, greeting local organisations and presenting them with Dementia Friendly certificates.

Tudor Evans, Leader of Plymouth City Council, said: “Working to become a Dementia Friendly City is a key priority for Plymouth. We are immensely proud of the work the council and other partners are doing to make Plymouth more supportive and dementia friendly place to live for people with dementia, their families and carers.”Ian Sheriff, Plymouth University Academic Partnership Lead for Dementia, School of Medicine and Dentistry, and the chair of the PDAA, said: “This celebration and awards event will ensure that Plymouth is leading the way on becoming  the first fully Dementia Friendly City in England. The Plymouth Dementia Action Alliance (PDAA) was established in 2011. At that time it comprised  of over forty organisations who came together to transform the quality of life for people with dementia and those who care for them in Plymouth.

“Since 2011 the Alliance has grown from the original 40 organisation to over 60 different voluntary, statutory. Businesses, faith groups and Schools. Early this year Stoke Damerell School were singled out for a national award for their work on becoming one of the first schools in England to become Dementia aware. The Plymouth Dementia Action Alliance is a movement with one simple aim: to bring about a Plymouth -wide response to dementia”. This event is a giant step in that direction”.

Plymouth Dementia Action Alliance brings together organisations across the city working to improve the experiences people living with dementia, as a customer, carer or staff member. All member organisations of the PDAA have developed an action plan to help support people living with dementia accessing their service and diverse range of organisations have already signed up.

A recent company to have joined the PDAA is Thompson and Jackson Solicitors, who have also sponsored the event. Simon Stevenson from Thompson and Jackson Solicitors, said: “Thompson and Jackson Solicitors are delighted both to have joined such a worthwhile organisation as the PDAA and to have the opportunity to sponsor this Dementia Friendly Plymouth event.  We have considerable understanding of the issues and difficulties that can face those people who are directly or indirectly affected by dementia. We realise that we need patience and tact to be able to help.  We stress to our clients the importance of planning properly for their own futures by making both Wills  and  Lasting Powers of Attorney early on in their lives whilst they have sufficient mental capacity to do so.” Other schemes members of the Alliance are supporting include:

Dementia Friends - National ‘Dementia Friends’ campaign run by the Alzheimer’s Society – raising awareness of challenges customers living with dementia face when managing everyday tasks. The Alzheimer’s Society aim to create 1 million dementia friends by 2015. For more information visit www.dementiafriends.org

Dementia Friendly Toolkit - A toolkit has been developed by Plymouth City Council to help people become more Dementia Friendly. You can download the toolkit on the Council website at www.plymouth.gov.uk/dementia

Dementia Quality Mark – Care homes in Plymouth who have been accredited with the highly regarded Dementia Quality Mark have been recognised for the efforts they are taking to improve the experience of residents within the home, and providing quality dementia care. They will also be celebrated at the event.

Plymouth Schools 73% of schools in Plymouth have signed up to the Healthy Child Quality Mark (HCQM) As the 3rd version of the HCQM is launched, Schools will now be expected to demonstrate how they are including work on dementia in the curriculum.  So over the next three years all schools on the HCQM will be working on topics around dementia embedding dementia awareness into Plymouth schools for the future.

One particular school, Stoke Damerel Community College, have been very successful with their dementia friendly work and in May this year they won a national Dementia Friendly School Award from the Alzheimer’s Society. Angela Rippon presented the school with the award at their prestigious awards ceremony at Westminster’s Central Hall. The school worked to place dementia education across the curriculum, from running croquet sessions with local people with dementia to designing dementia-friendly games in Maths.

Any local organisations interested in signing up to become Dementia Friendly can contact the Plymouth Dementia Action Alliance on pdaa@plymouth.gov.uk or call 01752 305519.

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