8 Dementia and a Community's Businesses [Update 4 - 14/12/13]

 If you are the owner or employee of a business, you are likely to have someone in the family or a friend or customer who is living with dementia. About 40 million of our population in England know at least one of the 600,000 or so who have one or more of the dementias.

Businesses are being or will encouraged in dementia friendly communities, eg Swanley, to build on good practice in developing ways of being more supportive of those with dementia, and their carers and families.

Just a short information and awareness session will be enough to create insights into the challenges you, your spouse, partner or another may face as a carer of someone just beginning to live with dementia.

Listed below are some of the matters which have or are being addressed by private, public and third sector businesses. It cannot be exhaustive and merely records findings from focused and casual searches; in some instances a note of changes have been given.

1. Employees who care for a person with dementia is likely to need flexi-time to accommodate the needs of the person living with dementia.
2. Employees who regularly meet members of the public are likely to meet in increasing numbers those with memory problems or a with one of the dementia. Many employees will need to be able to recognise the symptoms of a dementia, and learn to behave in an appropriate manner. In a dementia friendly community opportunities for in-house training are likely to become available. Much will be common sense but some behaviour can be challenging.
3. An employee who develops memory problems may not have dementia but it is pertinent to encourage him or her to seek the advice of their GP. The National Health Service has, under the national Dementia Challange, developed health and care pathways for assessment, diagnosis and the appropriate treatment of those with memory problems.   
4. It is posssible for an employee over say, 30 years of age to develop dementia: although the chance is that the onset will be at a much later age. If diagnosed the capability to continue working in their current position would need to be kept under review. At the same time concerns about about being able to work and so continue to support any family will need to be addressed. 
5. Many organisations are encouraging managers and other staff to become Dementia Friends in the workplace. Early in the formation of a dementia friendly community volunteers are likely to become Dementia Friends or Dementia Friends Champions (DFC). The latter will be able to offer in-house awareness and information sessions for potential Dementia Friends within a local organisation (see Post No 6). 
6. After such an awareness and information as is offered by a DFC a more targetted training might be required for those in certain kinds of business is likely to be more focussed, eg for a retail business, a bank or a public library, than would normally be offered by a Dementia Friend Champion (see Post No 6).
7. Nationally, some of the nations professions, particularly in the health sector, are adopting a strategy on dementia for their members, eg the Chief Fire Officers Association.
8. Similarly, many of the nation's large businesses and organisations have joined the National Dementia Action Alliance which is developing ways in which its members progress the policies and action progammes arising under the 18 objectives of the Dementia Declaration. 
9. At a more local level trends may or are emerging, namely:

• Local branches of the national orgaisations may be expected to adopt practices obtained from their national parent bodies - this is beginning to happen in Swanley
• Local Dementia Action Alliances are developing among county city or town dementia friendly communities
• Where a local Dementia Action Alliance exists it is likely that busineses will take onthe likes of a) staff training to become aware of dementia, b) take up specified training, c) premises are adapted to be more dementia friendly,  etc, then retail and other premises will post a distinctive dementia logo, eg a purple angel, in view of the street etc. 

Post 8A [30.10.13] gives details of the the initiative for the nation's financial institutions to become more dementia friendly.  Profiles 1 to 5 show how businesses and services in Kent around Swanley are meeting the challenges of dementia.

6 Dementia Friends and Dementia Friends Champions

A Dementia Friend is a person who undertakes to make small changes which might help an individual who has dementia or might make life easier in a community for those with dementia. The 'Dementia Friends' initiative comes with support from the Cabinet Office and with the backing and of a National Lottery Fund grant to the Alzheimer's Society (see Post 5).  

The aim is to recruit 1,000,000 individuals who have each attended an information session on dementia and have then registered as a Dementia Friends with the Alzheimer's Society. At present there are about 30,000 Dementia Friends.

 The information sessions are delivered by Dementia Friends Champions - individuals who have progressed from being a Dementia Friend by further practical session on the delivery of information sessions. About 2,000 Dementia Friends Champions are registered. Dates for training days for Champions can usually be found at:

http://www.dementiafriends.org.uk/

Each Dementia Friend Champion undertakes to prepare and deliver of information sessions to various groups - such as:

• relatives and friends 
• a local community group
• the staff and pupils of a local school 
• small parties of employees of local businesses
• meetings open to the public.  

The Alzheimer's Society offers considerable support - handouts, materials, 'games' etc - for a DFC's information session. The Society keeps a register of proposed meetings and provides a support and a communications network for those who become Dementia Friends.

5B National Vision, Strategies, Policies and Actions for Dementia in England [Update 5 - 16.12.13]

Viewers in Indonesia, South Korea, Ukraine, USA and other places overseas might like to note that these Posts are about a small town in Kent (a county in England). This series of rolling Posts is, therefore, about dementia 'governance' in England* only, but with particular reference to changes coming about in Swanley over the coming months and years. This is a result of an initiative to encourage the town to become a more dementia friendly community (see Post 1).

Although France's national dementia strategy was about eight years earlier than England's, over the last four years England's national vision, strategies and policies for dementia have been formulated and their implementation has begun.  Just a few are included in the list below:

• "A National Dementia Strategy - Living well with dementia" (3 February 2009)
• the National Dementia Declaration (October 2010)
• the National Dementia Action Alliance (2010)
• A policy of upgrading of care settings for those with dementia is funded by £50m - for hospitals, and care and homes (see Profile No 1)
• the Dementia Friends initiative and the Dementia Friends Champions initiative (see Post 6)
• the Dementia Friendly Communities initiative (see Post 4)
• the Dementia Friendly Pledge for businesses and other organisations 
• 'Making a Difference in Dementia Nursing Vision and Strategy'
• The G8 Summit (Decemeber 2013) agreed cooperation and the enhancement of funds for research into dementia.   

Each of these will be described briefly in later Posts together with a rolling account of their local impact in Swanley. 

At the moment there are a growing number of dementia friendly communities in Kent, eg Northfleet, Dartford, Eastry, West Malling, and Westgate. In due course KCC aims to have 12 such settlements - but it is likely that as a result of the three 'pilot' communities many others will be initiated.

Footnotes:

 1  For  the record, Swanley is administered by a 'town council', within the administration of Sevenoaks District Council, which in turn is within the administration of Kent County Council.

2   However, Swanley is in the area of Dartford, Gravesham and Swanley Clinical Commissioning Groups.  

*[ Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales are likely to have similar and different policies, etc but the institutional bodies formulating and implementing are probably different in each country.]

4 Some Ways to Understand a Dementia Friendly Community [Update 5 - 05.12.13]

The concept of community is various! In many posts on this blog it is a settlement - village, town or city. In other posts the term community means an organisation or even an industry. Could I suggest that a family might be a "community" which is or is capable of becoming dementia friendly?

A dementia friendly community is one where all are pulling together for those living with dementia in their midst. Any initiative for a dementia friendly community (DFC) is likely to be underpinned by the following vision:

1. Those living, working or visiting a village or town will have awareness of dementia or will be able to readily obtain information and guidance about dementia - so gradually developing for themselves a good knowledge of the needs of those living with dementia - and so be able help them, particularly in shops, offices and service facilities.
2. Those living in the community who have memory problems are encouraged to visit their doctor or a local memory clinic for assessment, diagnosis and treatment, if necessary.
3. Those living with dementia in the community will have in time the support of a local team of health and social care professionals offering easily accessed, well-defined and integrated services for early assessment, diagnosis and treatment which is GP-lead and supported by specialists. 
4. Where appropriate, the physical environment gradually changes by adaptation, improvement or development so that homes, shops and other buildings enable those with dementia experience good accessibility, and safety, and so enables them to live in their own homes for as long as possible.   
5. Finally, those with dementia, their carers, and their families will feel that they can live well in a supportive community which meets their concerns and needs for information and help at appropriate times.  [For KCC Library Services and dementia see Post 15.]    

In Post 8 (21.10.13) a more detailed vision of the way in which the community's businesses may respond to a DCF initiative are explored. An approach which is often adopted is to join a local Dementia Action Alliance (DAA)- it is commonly a community- or county-based group or county. A local DAA is registered with the National Dementia Action Alliance.