This week is
Dementia Awareness Week

850,000 people live with dementia in the UK, including a substantial number of our customers. So it’s really important for us to know how to identify customers living with dementia and are equipped with the necessary knowledge and understanding to provide them with a great home and an amazing customer service.

A dementia-friendly organisation

Our commitment to being dementia-friendly doesn’t just stop at awareness among customer-facing staff. The design of the homes we build, the types of services we provide and the communal areas on our estates are just some factors that can have a huge impact on people living with dementia.

We recently signed up to the Alzheimer Society’s Dementia-Friendly Housing Charter, complete with 12 commitment statements that we pledge to fulfil throughout the year.

Fulfilling our commitments

‘Commitments to applicability’ tackles the issue of processes or systems not being appropriately designed or dementia-friendly.

To fulfil this commitment, we:

• will launch some training for our staff to raise awareness and understanding of dementia.
• deliver Dementia Friends training sessions across our offices and actively encourage our staff to become champions.
• devised a flagging system within our customer database which identifies those who are living with dementia. This allows staff to make a note of customers with individual requirements, therefore allowing us to offer a bespoke service to them, taking into account their needs.
• will continue to trial and refine our Assistive Technology offering to make sure we can offer the latest products and services to our customers.
• will be reviewing our housing policies to ensure they take into account the needs of our customers living with dementia.