Dementia Friendly Hampshire County Council

Hampshire County Council is committed to being Dementia Friendly. Our current work stream looks at three key areas: people, places and programmes.

People

People using Hampshire County Council places may have dementia, and the way this space is designed can affect how people with dementia can access and use it.

Dementia Friends is a great opportunity to gain insight into what dementia is and what it might be like to live with dementia. Find out how you can become a dementia friend at dementiafriends.org.uk

Places

People using Hampshire County Council places may have dementia, and the way this space is designed can affect how people with dementia can access and make use of it.

Data from the Alzheimer’s Society suggests that only 47% of people with dementia felt a part of their community, with 28% who stopped leaving the house and 16% who have gave up using transport. Organisations have legal obligations to ensure services are as inclusive as possible – that is for both customers and employees.

Hampshire County Council has produced a helpful checklist to ensure that places are dementia friendly.

Programmes

As well as ensuring that staff are dementia aware and that places are accessible to people with dementia, it is also important to ensure that the programme or product is suitable. Complicated processes, abstract technology or something that requires short-term memory can be barriers to someone accessing a service.

A useful way of designing something that meets people's need is through co-production; involving people with dementia or someone caring for a person with dementia in the development process can help ensure that the programme or product designed will be suitable.
Our guidance has been adapted from the Alzheimer’s Society to support Hampshire County Council, and other organisations, to think about dementia when designing a new programme and ensure that the end products meet the requirements of the Equality Act.