In support of Dementia Awareness Week, (15 May to 21 May), volunteers from the North Yorkshire Advocacy, a charitable organisation that helps vulnerable people through circumstance or disadvantage, became Dementia Friends through an hour long awareness session hosted by Sheena Van Parys, owner of Home Instead Senior Care in Harrogate, Ripon and Thirsk.
The Dementia Friends initiative, which is backed by the government, aims to increase dementia awareness and change the way the nation thinks.
A Dementia Friend is someone who has attended an hour long information session and has committed to an action that will make the lives of people living with dementia a little bit better.
Speaking about the session, Sheena said:
As a Dementia Champion, I provide free hour long workshops to anyone interested in understanding a little more about dementia. By delivering these sessions to people in the community, we are helping to make the local area more dementia aware.
As specialists in at-home care for older people, a number of our clients are diagnosed with, or have symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease, and it is important that we can do as much as possible to maintain their quality of life.
Wendy Holt, Project Coordinator at North Yorkshire Advocacy commented on the workshop:
I just wanted to say a big thank you for giving your time to host a Dementia Friends workshop for our volunteers. We have had lots of positive feedback from the attendees who found the session informative and enjoyable.
With an ageing population, cases of dementia are increasing at an alarming rate, which means that more and more people will be affected by the condition at some point in their lives.
