Angus South Constituency MSP Graeme Dey and his local office staff recently underwent a Dementia Friends Scotland awareness session.
Dementia Friends is an Alzheimer Scotland initiative aiming to raise awareness about Dementia and reduce the stigma.
Anybody can become a Scottish Dementia Friend. It’s just about understanding a bit more about dementia and the small things you can do to help people with the condition. This could be helping someone find the right bus or being patient in a till queue if someone with dementia is taking longer to pay. Every action counts.
Mr Dey commented:
“I and my staff were pleased to go through this awareness session provided by Lindsay Shaw from Alzheimer Scotland.
“We learnt a great deal about the different types of dementia and how they can affect people, as well as some of the steps we can take to help people with dementia.
“One of the things that really struck us was something from the start of the session. The next time you’re at the supermarket wishing that the person in front would hurry up, just remember, that giving them the time and space to carry out their transaction might just ensure that their confidence isn’t knocked and they feel able to keep getting their messages themselves.
“This might not seem much but it could be vitally important to that other person’s day.
“I and my office are happy to help anyone needing assistance if we can and I would like to also commend the excellent work being undertaken by the team at the Alzheimer Scotland Resource Centre just a couple of doors down from my office.”
Lindsay Shaw, Dementia Advisor at Alzheimer Scotland, said:
“It was great to deliver a Dementia Friends awareness session to Graeme and has staff, although it was small group they all participated well, were interested in the subject and very enthusiastic about the issues raised. It gave us the opportunity to discuss how important it is to support people living with dementia to remain part of their community and the small things that we can all do to enable this.
“What became apparent during the session was the need for the right support at the right time in order to support people to live well with dementia.”
