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.