Dementia groups visit Dudley Market as part of national campaign

Around six different support groups, who are part of the Dudley Dementia Action Alliance, paid residents a visit at a stall in Dudley Market on Tuesday.

This comes as part of Dementia Awareness Week, a national campaign launched to raise awareness for those living with the syndrome.

Susan Love, who is director of community engagement for Dudley and Sandwell South at senior care provider Home Instead, helped to organise the event.

She said: "We really want to make a difference in the community so we said let's take all the help and support to show the people of Dudley what's on offer.

"People living with dementia often don't reach out for help. However if they don't know what's available, they don't know what they can have as help – the earlier that people get a diagnosis, the more they can get the support.

"With the Dudley Dementia Action Alliance our aim is to make our local communities dementia friendly so that acceptance and understanding is the norm. It's (giving) little hints and tips to help their friends and loved ones carry on living a normal life, to allow them to live, and to know that it is accepted.

"It's giving them an arena to be open and discuss things and understand there are so many other people going through it, and to reach out because help is there."

Susan was inspired to set up a stall at the market to better engage with members of the public following the Covid lockdowns.

She continued: "After Covid, lots of elderly people living with or without dementia, their conditions had been made a lot worse by being isolated.

"So I thought lets go somewhere where it's open, airy, we aren't harbouring germs because we are all outside (and) I realised actually the market is a good place – people don't have to open a door to go on the market they just walk into it so it's so much easier to engage."