Awards recognise ‘dementia friendly’ work in Plymouth

Three services at Plymouth City Council are to get awards for their dementia work.

Joint Commissioning and Adult Social Care, the Library Service and the Arts and Heritage Service will be presented with certificates by the Plymouth Dementia Action Alliance at an event on Friday 2 August in recognition of the work carried out in Plymouth towards making the city ‘dementia friendly’.

Adult Social Care has developed a dementia quality mark for care homes and funded dementia support workers. The Arts and Heritage Service carry out reminiscence work in care homes and at the museum while libraries have dementia information and awareness events and host the Alzhemier’s Society memory corner drop in sessions.

Plymouth City Council and the Plymouth Dementia Action Alliance are organising the event which will be hosted by Council Leader Tudor Evans. 30 other organisations in the city will also be presented with certificates recognising their dementia friendly work.

Cabinet member for Public Health and Adult Social Care Councillor Sue McDonald said: “We are leading the way with our dementia work and it is important to recognise how all the different support and activities available contribute to improving the experience of living with the condition in Plymouth.

“Dementia is one of the biggest challenges we face. With the Plymouth Dementia Action Alliance and our partners we are working to not only provide better support but also to improve the awareness and understanding of the condition.”

Plymouth is set to become one of the first ‘dementia friendly’ cities in the UK. The Council, Plymouth University and the NHS are leading a number of projects to raise awareness and understanding of dementia including building links between the generations at Stoke Damerel Community College and running awareness training events for frontline staff and local businesses.

Plymouth has also now been invited by the Alzheimer’s Society to join the ‘early adopter’ group for dementia friendly communities. As part of this pilot, carers and people with dementia will be consulted and feedback will be given on how a city becomes designated ‘dementia friendly’.