How dementia-friendly shops, offices and cities offer hope for sufferers

In coming decades, rates of dementia will rise sharply, partly due to a “silver tsunami” as the boomer generation ages and partly because we are living longer than ever. By 2030, the WHO predicts 75.6 million people globally will have the disease.

In response, cities around the world are creating communities that better help people with dementia go about their daily lives (there are more than 200 such dementia-friendly communities in England and Wales alone).

This includes engaging businesses whose customers may have or be caring for people with dementia. “Making small changes in the way businesses and communities act can transform the quality of life and the contribution those with dementia and their carers can make,” says George McNamara, policy chief at Alzheimer’s Society.

Those small changes include training companies to recognise and support people with cognitive decline. In Bruges, for example, dozens of shops are designated as dementia friendly. Select employees are trained to recognise customers with the condition, allowing them to help those struggling to pay or find what they need, for example.

In Greater Manchester, taxi drivers are also being trained as “dementia friends” who recognise and assist customers with dementia, while in London, Lord’s cricket ground has created a project to reduce stigma and raise awareness. London recently announced a goal to become the world’s first dementia-friendly capital by 2020. Key areas of focus include (pdf) working with local health authorities to improve diagnosis rates and collaborating with Transport for London to make getting around safer and easier.

“If you get it right in cities you can have a big impact on a large number of people,” says Mark Drane, a Bristol-based architect and doctoral researcher with the WHO Collaborating Centre for Healthy Urban Environments. “And a city, in theory, has the levers to pull, especially for integrated care.”

Elsewhere, banks are training employees to help people with the dementia manage their money. HSBC, for example, has joined with Alzheimer Scotland and the Alzheimer’s Society in a three-year awareness raising partnership that has so far trained 2,000 UK staff across 742 branches.

In Southampton, British Gas is training staff as “dementia champions”, who can then teach other local business people and the public about the needs of those with dementia, holding monthly drop-ins to support people with the disease and their carers, and connecting staff to volunteer and fundraising opportunities in the community.

Around 7,000 of British Gas’s 30,000 UK staff are taking part in a dementia friends programme that trains them to be more informed about the illness.

Cutting costs

In addition to their work supporting customers, British Gas and Centrica are working to support employees who face dementia-related issues in their own lives. British Gas carers’ network, for example, offers a range of support, including giving employees flexibility to attend family members’ hospital appointments.

Centrica estimates that its caregiver support initiatives (paywall) save £2m in staff retention and potential training costs, and another £4.5m in preventing absenteeism of employees who are caregivers.

A 2014 report found that dementia costs UK businesses roughly £1.6bn per year, because of carers, more than half of whom are in work, having to reduce their hours or give up their jobs to look after a relative or friend with dementia. The Alzheimer’s Association estimates dementia costs US businesses $ 61bn (pdf), more than half of which it attributes to costs to businesses – including lost productivity – related to employees providing care.

As well as saving money through supporting employees, assisting customers with dementia offers businesses an opportunity to build and maintain their customer base. Sainsbury’s and the Federation of Small Businesses are among those that joined a federal retail task and finish group, which has produced a guide (pdf) on making shops dementia friendly. This isn’t merely corporate altruism: 83% of people with memory issues have changed where they shop based on how the business caters for people with dementia, according to the Alzheimer’s Society.

While a single company can have a significant impact locally, a multi-sector approach is crucial to creating dementia-friendly cities. Care City, for example, a research, education and innovation site in north-east London, works with the technology sector to develop products such as wearable devices for those with dementia.

Through NHS England’s healthy new town programme, Care City is also working with local communities to foster innovation in their backyards. That includes everything from an online platform where patients and their carers can log information about their health to a wearable location device that alerts carers if someone with dementia leaves a designated safe space.

Many projects currently begin in the health and social care system, or are driven by charities who work with businesses. In the future, more products and services to help people live at home longer and stay safe in their communities may come from industry itself.

According to McNamara, progress is being made by businesses, among others, to help those with dementia engage with their communities but there’s work to be done to ensure these ideas spread further. “Dementia,” he says, “is everyone’s business.”

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How dementia-friendly shops, offices and cities offer hope for sufferers