Shopping centre to stage dementia awareness event
A day of dementia awareness, fundraising and musical performances will take place at a busy shopping centre today.
It has been orchestrated by Alzheimer Scotland at Braehead to mark Scotland’s Dementia Awareness Week.
As well as hosting a series of activities, Braehead has unveiled plans to become a dementia-friendly community as part of its ongoing engagement with Alzheimer Scotland Renfrewshire Services.
And to get things going there was some fun and games yesterday as staff from Alzheimer Scotland eere given the chance to take part in activities at Soar leisure destination at Braehead. Employees and retailers will take part in Dementia Friends information sessions.
Iain Houston, Alzheimer Scotland dementia advisor, commented: “People with dementia should be recognised and supported as valued citizens in our communities.
“We know that people can live well with dementia, but they cannot do so alone. We all have a part to play in making a difference.
“Our mission is to help make daily life better for people living with dementia and their carers and change the way local people think, talk and act when it comes to dementia. We welcome intu Braehead’s engagement with our Dementia Friends programme and look forward to working with the popular shopping centre going forward.
“By taking steps to become a dementia friendly business, employers and businesses gain the awareness and confidence to help make a positive difference to their customers who are in need of extra support.
“Come along and meet the Alzheimer Scotland Renfrewshire Services team on the day to talk about dementia and see all our singing performances.”
Taking centre stage at the dementia awareness event will be Singing Memories, a Paisley-based musical reminiscence support group which has been created for people living with dementia and those who care for them.
Children from Nursery Times and Stephen Murphy from local band Velvet Noir will take part too. All will be performing live to help entertain shoppers. Lydia Brown, Braehead’s community development manager, said: “We aim to make intu Braehead as welcoming a place as possible for everyone to visit.
“We appreciate there can be particular issues that face people with dementia when they come to a place like intu Braehead.
“Our staff have been through the Dementia Friends information sessions so they can better understand how they can help make people living with dementia feel more comfortable and relaxed in the surroundings of a shopping centre and a leisure destination like ours.
“We hope by having the Awareness Day at intu Braehead we can give Alzheimer Scotland a platform to get their message across to thousands of people.”