Gunwharf Quays strives to become dementia-friendly shopping centre

Portsmouth dementia service Remind are working with Gunwharf Quays to help the outlet shopping centre achieve a dementia-friendly status.

‘Dementia Friendly Communities’ is a programme which facilitates the creation of dementia-friendly communities across the UK. The Remind dementia service will be offering sessions for retailers to help them improve staff awareness and enhance understanding of dementia and how their physical environment can be improved for people with dementia.

Sarita Chavda, Remind Service Manager, said: “We are really excited to be working with Gunwharf Quays to support people with dementia. We encourage businesses to join us at our Dementia Friendly Sessions and learn more about how they can create a good shopping experience for people with dementia.

“We know from research by the Alzheimer’s Society that 80% of people like to go shopping in their local area, but that 63% of people surveyed did not think shops were doing enough for people with dementia.

“We hope these sessions will give retailers the opportunity to see how they can be more welcoming to people with dementia.”

Colin Wilding, General Manager at Gunwharf Quays, said: “We are delighted to be working with Remind to support Portsmouth in achieving dementia-friendly status. Over 2,000 people work at Gunwharf Quays, and we will be providing them all with the opportunity to receive specialist training through our academy.

“We are dedicated to offering great service and constantly strive to understand how our guest experience can be improved for everyone. This training is a wonderful enhancement to our current training calendar.”

Remind support people who have been diagnosed with dementia and live in the PO1 through PO6 postcode areas. The service is delivered through a partnership between Solent Mind, SCA Group, and the Rowans Hospice. It’s funded by the Portsmouth NHS Clinical Commissioning Group.