Make buses dementia-friendly says TV’s Angela Rippon – Yorkshire Post Letters

ACROSS Yorkshire, over 76,000 people are living with dementia and 850,000 are affected UK-wide. Dementia is now the UK’s biggest killer, with someone developing it every three minutes and too many face the condition alone.

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The Alzheimer’s Society has joined up with Department for Transport on their ‘it’s everyone’s journey’ campaign to address the fact that too many disabled people, including people with dementia, don’t feel confident using public transport.

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Transport can be a lifeline in helping people retain their independence to go shopping, collect their prescriptions, go to a hospital or doctors’ appointment or visit friends and family. We want a society where people think and act differently about dementia.

So we are calling on the travelling public to help beat the isolation and loneliness faced by people affected by learning more about some simple steps to support people with disabilities to travel:

n Please be patient and take your time – support people living with dementia and other conditions by allowing people some extra time, should they require it. This could be using ticket barriers, finding a seat or getting onto a bus.

n Please be considerate and aware of your fellow passengers – by offering help if someone looks lost or keeping the noise down
if anyone looks visibly distressed to help reduce people’s anxieties.

n Please be prepared to give up the priority seat – dementia is one of many disabilities which is not visible, so please be aware of other passengers and be prepared to give up the priority seat to anyone who might need it.

n Please respect accessible toilet users – an accessible (disabled) toilet is not just a facility for wheelchair users. Please respect the fact that not all disabilities are visible and you may not always be aware of someone’s accessibility needs.

Every person in Yorkshire and the Humber can join this movement by becoming a Dementia Friend which allows you to learn more about what it’s like to live with dementia, and then turn that understanding into action. In England and Wales there are already over 3.25 million Dementia Friends taking action to make a difference – but we need to do more. We owe it to the 850,000 people living with dementia to understand the condition better, so that they can live better.

Become a Dementia Friend to learn more dementiafriends.org.uk and find out more about the campaign at everyonesjourney.campaign.gov.uk.