It’s Dementia Action Week, a week to raise awareness about dementia and how we can all play a part to support people living with dementia and their carers. 

Currently there are 6,313 people living with dementia on the Northern Beaches and that is expected to increase by 151% by 2058.  

Dementia Australia say that people living with dementia can live active and fulfilling lives many years after diagnosis. Despite this, they often experience discrimination. Whether you are a friend, family member or healthcare professional, there are small but significant things that anyone can do to support someone living with dementia. You can learn more about how you can help here. 

A not widely-known fact is that dementia affects children too. One in 2,800 children are born with a childhood dementia disorder. This is more common than well-known disorders like cystic fibrosis. You can learn more about childhood dementias here.

Here at Council, we have been working towards ensuring the Northern Beaches is a dementia friendly community working alongside the Northern Beaches Dementia Alliance and the roll out of a Dementia Friendly Organisation Action Plan.

The five-year Action Plan aims to prioritise actions, remove barriers and ensure all areas of Council are dementia friendly. So far we have:

• trained 648 staff members in how to be more dementia friendly
• conducted 10 audits of key Council facilities with community members from the Northern Beaches Dementia Advisory Group
• supported the Northern Beaches Dementia Alliance to provide community dementia awareness education with 5 online sessions to 298 community members
• created an easy to use communications card to communicate with those living with dementia with the Northern Beaches Dementia Alliance and Dementia Advisory Group. The card has been widely distributed to businesses throughout the Northern Beaches and to Council libraries, customer service centres and Council staff via the Intranet.

There is plenty more to do but every little support can make a big difference.

Learn more about our work towards a dementia-friendly community, dementia prevention resources and how you can get involved.