Barking & Dagenham staff are dementia friendly

Muhammad Hamza

BARKING TOWN HALL hosted a Dementia Friends seminar for staff keen to raise their awareness and increase their knowledge.

Dedicated frontline workers from various key community sectors took part in the information session and committed themselves to dementia-friendly actions. Each attendee is now a Dementia Friend and received a pin badge as recognition of their participation.

Zoinul Abidin, Head of Universal Services, commented, “I am already a Dementia Friend and understand why it would be tremendous to have our workforce receive this training. Dementia is set to become the 21st century’s biggest killer, with someone developing a form of the condition in the UK every three minutes. Thanks to Emdad Rahman for volunteering his time to deliver this.”

Dementia Friends Champions are trained volunteers who encourage others to learn a little bit about dementia and to make a positive difference to people living with dementia in their community. Champions run Information Sessions in their community which explain the personal impact of dementia and how we can all help each other. Champions also inspire others to help those living with dementia to live well.

•It’s easy to become a Dementia Friends Champion and start helping others to make a difference. Champions attend a induction, receive support when they need it and are part of over 10,500 volunteer Dementia Friends Champions creating dementia friendly communities. For more information, to go:
www.dementiafriends.org.uk

•Read more about it:
London Islamic School pupils are Dementia Friends
Community group holds Ramadan Dementia Friends session