EAST Hampshire MP Damian Hinds has first-hand experience of a family member learning to live with dementia and is determined to try to increase understanding of the condition by running information training sessions.

And the first one has taken place in Alton.

In explaining the reason behind this decision to become involved in the Alzheimer’s Society Dementia Friends programme, Mr Hinds said: “Before my late mother was diagnosed with a form of dementia (fronto-temporal) I thought I knew a lot about the condition. When the diagnosis came, I realised how far from the truth that was.

“More than 26,000 people in Hampshire, including unitary authorities, have a form of dementia and across the UK a new person develops it every three minutes.

“Despite its growing prevalence, public understanding of the condition remains poor, which is why the Alzheimer’s Society are running a programme to boost awareness, and also why I decided to get involved.

“Alzheimer’s Society’s Dementia Friends programme has been set up to tackle the stigma of dementia that can often result in people with the condition experiencing loneliness and social exclusion."

Mr Hinds continued: “The society aims to create more communities and businesses that are dementia friendly so that people affected feel understood and included. To achieve this aim, volunteer dementia friends champions run information sessions to create dementia friends; having comfortably met their target to create one million, they have set themselves a new, ambitious aim to quadruple this number by 2020.

“Along with many MPs, a few years ago I became a dementia friend, which provided me with an invaluable understanding of what it is like to live with dementia and how I can change my own behaviour to support people with the condition. Like the Alzheimer’s Society, I want to make sure more people are given the opportunity to understand the disease so that we can not only reach and surpass the society’s 2020 aim, but also create the most dementia friendly country in Europe.

“One way to support this aim has been to become a dementia friends champion myself.”

Having now completed the dementia friends champion course, Mr Hinds can offer information sessions across East Hampshire.”

He added: “I would wholeheartedly encourage people to attend and in the meantime I would like to take the opportunity to share some of the key messages I learnt from my training day that dementia is not a natural part of ageing, that dementia is caused by diseases of the brain, that dementia is not just about losing your memory, that it is possible to live well with dementia, and that there is more to the person than the dementia.

“As well as these five key messages, one of my biggest takeaways from the champions training was that anyone, of any age, can be a dementia friend.”

For more details, or to become a dementia friend, visit dementiafriends.org.uk.