Dementia Friends Champion Louise Duncan

What is Dementia Friends?

Alzheimer's Society's Dementia Friends programme is an initiative to change people's perceptions of Dementia. It aims to transform the way the nation thinks, acts and talks about Dementia. Stigma and lack of understanding cause many people with the condition to experience loneliness and social exclusion, so Dementia Friends hopes to tackle this by creating more communities and businesses that are dementia-friendly and more inclusive of people affected by dementia.

I'm a Dementia Friends Champion a volunteer who runs information sessions for people in their personal networks or communities, giving them information about the personal impact of dementia and what they can do to help.

Dementia Friends Champions attend a volunteer induction and then organise their own information sessions, with support from their regional support officer, What is a Dementia Friend?

A Dementia friend is someone who either

1. attends an information session or
2. watches the dementia friends video

They learn 5 key messages about dementia, a little bit about what it is like to live with dementia and then turn their understanding into a practical action that could help someone with dementia living in their community.

Their action could be as big or as small as they choose - because every action counts. Here is the link to the Dementia friends website https://www.dementiafriends.org.uk/