AN INITIATIVE to make Yate a dementia friendly town is being supported by the Yate Shopping Centre management.

Staff at the shopping centre, on North Walk, are “fully behind” the town council in Yate becoming a dementia friendly town, by attending and taking part in all meetings being organised to support businesses and members of the public to recognise and improve awareness about Dementia within the community.

Centre manager Andrew Lowrey said: “We were first approached about the town council’s dementia initiative last year and have been working with them ever since.

“It is very important that we are able to understand the symptoms of dementia and the problems people face within their community, this has been highlighted in recent months by the Government's imitative to improve the lives of people with dementia. “The meetings have been a total learning curve for many of us who were not familiar with dementia and this is now feeding through into how we cater for people in the centre.

“Two thirds of people with dementia live in the community and can face many challenges going about their daily lives. "We are looking at many ways of improving facilities in Yate such as building design and signage colours so that over time we can make the centre a dementia friendly environment.” As a commitment to the initiative all shopping centre staff including security, cleaning and maintenance staff have attended dementia awareness sessions.