Tuesday 18 February 2014

Dementia Friendly Barnton & Cramond

I love a good brainstorm, a flip chart and some post-it notes. It must be something to do with longstanding love of stationary! More than that I got really excited at the ideas generated during the first dementia friendly Barnton & Cramond forum meeting held in February. 


The Dementia friendly forum has come about to try make the community of Barnton and Cramond a a dementia friendly environment. This means making our community a place: 

  • In which it is possible for the greatest number of people with dementia to live a good life.
  • Where people with dementia are enabled to live as independently as possible and to continue to be part of their community
  • Where they are met with understanding  and given support where necessary

The first meeting was really well attended by members of our community representing all backgrounds from health to business, carers to the council. Our wee community will be one of the pilots for making Edinburgh's a dementia friendly city.

We finished our first meeting by agreeing the following objectives, but would love to hear from you if you would like to be involved, think we have missed anything or want to help us move forward with our aims in any way.

Objectives 
  • Raise awareness of dementia in Barnton and Cramond to help reduce stigma
  • Signposting to easily accessible information on resources for people with dementia in the local area.
  • Encourage people who may have dementia to seek help early for a timely diagnosis
  • Seek views of people with dementia, their carers and families.
  • Promote health lifestyles for people with dementia
  • Recognise local businesses and services as “dementia friendly” by developing a charter and training framework.
  • Identified gaps in services either social or health will be addressed where possible to improve care and support for patients and their carers
  • Showcase our work to other areas as a pathfinder in Edinburgh’s target to become a Dementia Friendly City