Dementia Awareness Week is underway and to mark the event Dementia Friends, an Alzheimer’s Society and Department of Health initiative, visited the Keepmoat Stadium, providing a workshop about the condition to students at the Doncaster Rovers Community Sports and Education Foundation.
Thousands of people across the UK live with dementia. Symptoms include memory loss and difficulties with thinking, problem-solving or language.
Doncaster is striving to be a dementia friendly town and the aim of the workshop is to get key messages across, increasing awareness about the condition and informing people that support is available to both people with dementia and their carers.
Emma Griffiths running the event said: “Dementia Friends is a national strategy, which is hopefully going to have 1 million ‘Dementia Friends’ by 2015.
“We are looking at making people more aware of dementia as an illness and how people can spot things with people around them.
Dementia Friends are here to help and support, to make sure people with dementia live well.
“Dementia week is massive, there are a lot of Dementia Friends session’s happening throughout the country to raise awareness and give information about how we can help people and their carers.
“Dementia is not a natural part of ageing and that making people aware that it isn’t a natural part of aging is very important, if people are worried they must get help.”
Club Doncaster are fully supportive of Dementia Awareness Week. Chief executive of the Doncaster Rovers Community Sports and Education Foundation said: “Many people throughout Doncaster are living with a form of the condition, so it is important that we actively stride to make people more dementia-aware in order to help those living with it and also make the community the best place it can be.”
Anybody can become a ‘Dementia Friend.’ It is not about volunteering or raising money, it’s about learning a few helpful tips to make life better, for people with dementia. For more information about becoming a ‘Dementia Friend’ please visit: https://www.dementiafriends.org.uk/
If you are concerned about dementia, you can talk to National Dementia Helpline Advisers on 0300 222 11 22.