Kit Malthouse, Conservative Candidate for North West Hants attended a Dementia Friends session at Andover Mind this week.
He was joined by several volunteers and councillors Iris Andersen and Pamela Mutton following an appeal for supporters of the Dementia Friendly Hampshire campaign in the Andover Advertiser a month ago.
The group learned about the causes of dementia and how to approach someone who shows signs of the disease in caring and helpful way.
Kit Malthouse said: ”The session was really interesting and will be incredibly helpful. I was so pleased that people responded to the article in the Advertiser. I had not appreciated the variety of forms of dementia and once it was explained how a person with dementia processes information, it became clear how best to help them.”
“Dementia can cause many difficulties for both the person with the disease and their carers, friends and relatives. Being a Dementia Friend would make a big difference to anyone in in a caring capacity. Once you understand what is going on, you can start to think of positive ways in which you can improve the quality of life for the person you are looking after.“
Following the session Andover Mind has asked Kit to become a Dementia Ambassador for the Dementia Friendly Hampshire campaign. In this role he will champion the idea of dementia friendly communities as he roves around the constituency, acting as a local voice raising awareness.
Kit said: “First stop is Andover where I think we should explore the idea of a Dementia Friendly Market Place. They already have Dementia Friendly high streets in Romsey and Fleet; I think it would be a really good way of bringing our town centre retailers together around a shared mission.”
Dementia currently costs the UK over £26 billion a year, enough to pay the annual energy bill of every household in the country. The number of people with dementia in the UK stands at approximately 850,000 but is predicted to rise to over 1 million by 2025, more than the entire population of Birmingham.
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Information for Editors:
Up to date statistics about Dementia can be accessed at http://www.alzheimers.org.uk/site/scripts/documents_info.php?documentID=2761