Right at Home Beats Dementia Target

Right at Home franchisee Alastair Shanks celebrates recruiting more than 1,000 ‘Dementia Friends’ across the UK.

People across the UK lose over 225,000 family members to dementia every year. That means that by 2025 over one million will be diagnosed with the mental illness. With the statistics being so heartbreaking, it’s hard to approach dementia positively.

But that’s exactly what the owner of Right at Home Guildford and Farnham has done. Over the last six years, he has recruited over 1,000 ‘dementia friends’ under a scheme ran by the Alzheimer’s Society. The ‘dementia friends’ initiative encourages caring individuals in local communities across the UK to learn more about the crippling illness and the impact it can have on people’s lives.

In the 89 training sessions that Alastair has delivered, he has taught groups from schools, Farnham Town Council, the Citizens Advice Bureau, a local hospital, a GP surgery and all new budding franchisees who have joined Right at Home in the UK.

Alastair reached the target by leading a session at Spire Church, Farnham on February 28. The session, which was directed at volunteers from Christian charity Farnham Assist, brought Richard’s total number of recruits up to 1,023.

The free to attend sessions last around an hour. Richard has sacrificed an admirable amount of his own time to improve the lives of Dementia sufferers. Even though he’s met this landmark, he’s showing no signs of stopping any time soon. He said: “I’m determined to continue playing my part on helping to create a dementia friendly community by providing these training sessions”.

Richard said that he has been inspired by the values of care franchise Right at Home to deliver the training: “As a care provider which supports clients living with dementia, we know how important it is to provide others with a better understanding of what living with dementia is like”.