Lawyers join scheme to raise dementia awareness

Sally Inston and Dawn Moore of Harrowells Solicitors have trained to become Alzheimer’s Society Dementia Champions and are educating York residents and workers on the condition.

Both solicitors specialise in legal services for the elderly and regularly come into contact with people living with dementia, as well as their carers and families.

The Dementia Friends scheme is part of the Alzheimer’s Society’s aim to create more dementia-friendly communities across the UK. It hopes to have trained a million Dementia Friends by 2015.

More than 11,000 people in York and North Yorkshire have dementia and this is expected to rise to 16,000 in the next decade.

Ms Inston and Ms Moore have already held information sessions around York and have delivered awareness sessions for BHS and City of York Council Staff.

Sessions are being delivered throughout Harrowells’ Solicitors six offices in North and East Yorkshire. Every member of staff will be a Dementia Friend by the end of the year.