A BARROW group dedicated to making a community more dementia friendly has hosted its inaugural meeting, revealing plans for 2017 and their local priorities to help people with diseases of the brain.
The Barrow Dementia Action Alliance launched in October and since then members of the group have held its first official meeting and drawn up a list of ambitions for their first 12 months of operation.
READ MORE: Call for community groups in Barrow to pledge to dementia action
The project aims to research the needs of people with dementia, especially those in the early stages of diagnosis, and recruit businesses who pledge to commit to small changes so customers with dementia can access facilities and services easier.
The alliance aims to hold a Dementia Friends session, a short awareness course about the symptoms and signs of conditions like Alzheimer's disease, at least once a month in Barrow and hopes to have 150 friends by the end of June.
These people will then, it is hoped, go on to spread the word and make change happen in shops, companies and offices across the borough.
Fiona Cloherty, chairwoman of Barrow Dementia Action Alliance, hopes 2017 will mark substantial change in the area and empower people who are living with dementia at whatever stage.
She said: "We want people to come forward and get involved.
"It would be great to have people in the early stages of dementia and who are still working to join our steering group or a family relative or friend.
"It's very important. We need to know how they feel and what we can do as a community and as a group to enable them to live well.
"We need to find out what's lacking."
It is estimated that by 2050 there will be 3,000 people living in the borough of Barrow with dementia.
Businesses becoming dementia friendly is a prime minister's challenge for 2020, with all industry sectors encouraged to develop dementia friendly charters and agendas.
So far the likes of Cumbria Care and Age UK Barrow and District have signed up as alliance members.
Barrow Dementia Action Alliance has also secured the support of Cumbria County Council who will help the group recruit new members and fund promotional activities.
Simple changes shops can make include having a "slow lane" so people don't feel rushed when counting money and paying the cashier, and ensuring entrances and exits are well signed and lit.
For more information, contact Mrs Cloherty at Phoenix Business Centre on 01229 840240 or email fiona@phoenixbusinesscentre.co.uk.
Click here to visit the alliance's website.
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