A BLACKBURN health centre is taking the first steps to become the first practice in Blackburn and Darwen to work towards becoming dementia-friendly.

The Stepping Stones GP practice, at the Audley Health Centre, has rolled out a new strategy to help dementia sufferers.

This comes in response to NHS England seeking to prioritise access to high quality services and support for people diagnosed with dementia and GPs are now encouraged to ask the right questions to identify patients with the condition.

Blackburn with Darwen Council’s dementia co-ordinator, Zoe Aldcroft is working with the surgery to cater to the needs of dementia patients.

Dr Mridul Kumar Datta, from the Stepping Stones Practice, said: “Zoe contacted us and explained all about the project happening throughout the borough and we were only too happy to get involved.

“I have a good understanding of dementia friendly communities and I think it is a really good example of how an area can improve.

“We also have an ageing population in this area so I thought it would be good project to get involved in.”

It is hoped that if the Stepping Stones project is a success more GP practices in the borough will follow suit.

To achieve its goal, the practice plans to educate staff, send out appointment reminders for people with known dementia, double the length of appointment times and improve signage in the buildings.

Zoe said: “This is a team effort to provide compassionate care for all our patients and I believe that this is the right thing to do. I am looking forward to hearing the feedback from patients.

“The first thing is to ensure all staff in the surgery have had the relevant dementia awareness training and are taking into consideration what patients believe will make a good service for them.”

The surgery improvements are linked to the Alzheimer’s Society campaign to create dementia-friendly communities.

About 850,000 people are affected by dementia in the UK and this is expected to hit one million by 2020.