Dementia Friendly Pharmacy

The Alzheimer's society has produced a very useful guide to becoming a Dementia friendly pharmacy found at the following link: Dementia Friendly Pharmacy

You can find out some more about dementia friendly pharmacy from the Community Pharmacy England website or the Community Pharmacy Greater Manchester website.

Some really useful pointers from within this document include:

■     Dementia affects 50 million people worldwide, with a new case diagnosed every three seconds.
■     Almost 80% of people worldwide are concerned about developing dementia at some point.
■     1 in 4 people think that there is nothing they can do to prevent dementia.
■     Dementia is the 5th leading cause of death in the world.
■     Pharmacy teams are ideally positioned to help patients and their carers to make positive choices about their health, optimise their use of medicines and signpost to other forms of support.
■     Pharmacies are uniquely placed as potential places for better information and signposting for people with dementia or worried about their memory.
■     Pharmacies are a source of medical support and information within local communities. They are also generally widely used by people with dementia.
■     It is important that all staff in a pharmacy benefit from having dementia awareness and not just those on the pharmacy counter. It is a fact that many pharmacists will have had no formal dementia awareness training.
■     Negative customer experiences are lost opportunities for customer loyalty and business growth.
■     Pharmacies may provide an excellent opportunity for signposting by having local service leaflets at the pharmacy counter from the Alzheimer’s association.