Corporate news

We’ve been accredited as “working towards being dementia friendly” from the Alzheimer’s Society. We’re the first housing association in Essex to have achieved this accreditation and we’re proud to lead the way in supporting customers to live well with dementia.

According to Alzheimer’s Research UK, there are 944,000 people living with dementia in the UK and this number is set to increase. We recognise that dementia doesn’t only affect the person diagnosed with the disease, but also their family and friends. We want to understand the impact that becoming a dementia friendly organisation and community can have on people living with dementia.

We’ve developed an action plan in partnership with Chelmsford District Dementia Friendly Community and the Alzheimer’s Society. Although we’re accredited for working towards being dementia friendly, this is just the beginning of what we hope to achieve. Our plan focuses on four key areas: people, place, procedures and partnerships. 

The people area focuses on providing training for employees to raise awareness and understanding of dementia. This includes our contractors and third-party service providers. We’ll also improve awareness and signposting for customers, their carers and our employees, so everyone knows where to get help and support. We already have a working group which is made up of volunteers from across the business.

For places, we’ll focus on creating safe spaces for our customers living with dementia. This includes our sheltered schemes, communal spaces, our Parkside Community Hub, and head office, Myriad House. We’ll promote how we can adapt existing customers’ homes, and work with them so they can live well and independently as long as possible. We’ll listen to customers living with dementia to understand what would help them when we build new homes.

For procedures, we’ll make sure that our Equality Impact Assessments include customers living with dementia. Partnerships will focus on working with local partners to provide inclusive events for customers to live well with dementia and offer volunteering opportunities. We’ll also train customers to become Dementia Friends Ambassadors and act as our community champions.

Recently, we’ve been working closely with our contacts at the Essex Community Dementia Support Team. They attended a customer event at Andrews Place to help answer questions and concerns that customers living with dementia might have around the regeneration work. We also met with carers of customers, some in the early stages of dementia diagnosis, and some fully diagnosed, to share tools and advice with them. 

World Alzheimer's Month 2024

In honour of World Alzheimer's Month this September, we we wanted to raise awareness of some of the local events, support groups and resources available to Chelmsford residents affected by dementia.