Making a dementia friendly community

January 3, 2017

Seaford is among a list of areas with the highest rates of recorded dementia in the UK, and Clifden House has pledged that all its staff will become ‘dementia friends’ in 2017, to help Seaford become a dementia friendly community.

Clifden House dementia care centre has joined Dementia Friends, an Alzheimer’s Society initiative that helps people learn about what it’s like to live with dementia and then turn that knowledge into action.

Dementia Friends encourages people to make pledges, such as visiting someone you know with dementia, raising money, wearing the badge and spreading the word, or simply being more patient when out in the community.

Nial Joyce of Clifden House said: “As a specialist dementia care home we have first hand knowledge of the disease and appreciate how challenging this condition can be to the person and their carers.

“We pride ourselves on running a ‘dementia friendly’ home – we have colour coded doors and walkways for ease of navigation, a relaxed ‘café-style’ dining area and bespoke resident-focused activities to stimulate.

“We signed up because we want to ensure that all our staff have access to training and information on dementia as part of their induction process and on-going professional development. It also ensures our staff are dementia friendly ambassadors in the community.”

Clifden House’s target is that all 50 staff will become ‘dementia friends’ over the next year.

Deena McCormack, activity coordinator at Clifden House and dementia friend.

“Dementia is a terrible disease, however it’s not the end of the road. I am passionate that all our residents are supported to continue doing what they most enjoy – whether that’s fishing, leading a poetry class, designing questions for pub quizzes – you name it! It is difficult to predict when sufferers might be able or willing to do the activity again, and they may not have the same ability as they had before dementia, but the most important aspect is the stimulation and enjoyment they get from it -– so our mantra is ‘carpe diem’ – seize the day!