We attended a meeting of the Wickham Chamber of Traders at the La Bocca Restaurant in Wickham, Hampshire at 18:15 on Wednesday 19th July 2017.

We presented to the members an outline of Shedfield Lodge’s plan to help the community become more dementia aware with the view to making life more fulfilling for those members of our community living with dementia.

We explained, in broad terms, the effects that dementia has on individuals living with it, particularly those living in the community and with numbers set to rise in the future, the importance of the role that we, as a community, can play in supporting those individuals and ensuring that they feel valued and understood.

We highlighted the fact that most local business are likely to currently have customers that may living with dementia and that many potential customers will have too. In order to maintain their customers and even attract new customers, it is important that they and their employees have a better understanding of dementia and associated feelings and difficulties that may be experienced by individuals.

Our plan, that we put to the members of the group, is to offer dementia awareness training to them and their employees, at no cost to them, as our pledge to help our community to be understanding, supportive and to value everyone in our community.

Once a training course has been completed, along with certification, the business owner will receive a window sticker to display at their premises to show the public that they are dementia aware.

In addition to this training, Shedfield Lodge have also pledged to offer access to other training courses, such as, First Aid, Health and Safety, Moving and Handling, Food Hygiene. A full range of courses will be available.

The group were left with an information sheet confirming our offer of help with a reply slip attached, that can be returned to Shedfield Lodge, should they decide to get involved with this community scheme.

We will keep everyone informed of the take up on our idea.