A NEW £35,000 a year project could transform the lives of dementia sufferers in Blackburn with Darwen.

The Borough 50+ Partnership is spearheading the scheme to make the two towns good places for people with the degenerative mental disease to live.

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The Dementia Strategy Co-ordination Project has two aims – to create a dementia friendly community in the borough and identify sufferers early and support them from diagnosis to the stage of needing more care and support.

It will support local organisations, businesses, groups, and places of worship to take steps to be more supportive of people with dementia.

It will also co-ordinate developments in local health care and other services.

The 50+ Partnership of Age UK Blackburn with Darwen and the borough council till at least March 2016.

Newly appointed co-ordinator Zoe Aldcroft said: “The number of older people with dementia is increasing both nationally and locally, and developments in dementia diagnosis and support are a priority.

“The aim of this project is to develop Blackburn with Darwen as a dementia friendly community and to support local health and voluntary organisations to work together to develop and improve services and to make dementia support the best it can be. “There are some simple steps organisations can take to be dementia friendly and we want to get as many organisations on board as possible.”

Those steps include changing signs to include pictures as well as words, thinking about flooring and decoration – too many patterns make it hard for people with dementia; providing staff with awareness to understand and respond to people with dementia who find routine tasks harder; and in supermarkets creating a slow checkout lane where people who need more time to sort and pay for their shopping don’t feel rushed.

It will also provide the latest assistive technology to help dementia sufferers stay at home.

This includes panic buttons, falls detectors, memory books with a step-by-step guide to performing tasks around the house like preparing food; and special doorbells alerting people with hearing disabilities to callers.

Blackburn with Darwen Council’s adult social care boss, Cllr M ohammed Khan said: “We are very pleased to welcome this project and the appointment of a new dementia co-ordinator.

“The emphasis is on helping to better join up and develop services for people with dementia and the carers.

“This will include identifying people at an earlier stage as well as providing a wider choice of support and assistive technology.”