Join the Dementia Friendly Glenrothes Steering Group

Glenrothes is working toward becoming dementia friendly. The aim of the dementia friendly community work is to make it easier for people living with dementia to be understood, valued and able to contribute to their community in Glenrothes. This is a partnership initiative between Fife Council, Fife’s Health and Social Care Partnership, Alzheimer Scotland and other local stakeholders. Part of this work involves supporting local businesses and services to make small changes so that their services are more accessible and friendly for their customers who are affected by dementia.

Twenty-five businesses in Glenrothes are currently involved in this work, including the Kingdom Shopping Centre, Aldi, RBS and McColls Retail Group. Many of these businesses have told us that they feel becoming dementia friendly have been beneficial for both their staff and customers who are affected by dementia.

Fiona Forrester, the Store Manager at Aldi Glenrothes, said: “Providing excellent customer service is important to us at Aldi. The Dementia Friends sessions have helped our staff to think about what help people with dementia might need such as more time or support when paying or some help to find things in the shop.”

Sharron McCormick, Marketing Executive, from the Kingdom Shopping Centre, said: “Every week we receive over a 100,000 visitors throughout our shopping centre and we want to make their experience as enjoyable as possible. When we were approached by the Dementia Friendly Glenrothes partnership, we quickly realised how important this initiative was and knew we had to get involved. At the earliest point, we signed a letter to show our commitment. The learning session was very easy for staff to put into use and we quickly realised that small changes can often make a big difference.”

We are hoping that a member of the Chamber of Commerce would be able to join the multi-agency Steering Group for the Dementia Friendly Glenrothes project. The contributions you could make as a representative from the local business community during these meetings would be invaluable. You would be able to ensure that the voice of businesses in Glenrothes is represented in this work and help to ensure that this important initiative is beneficial for your customers living with dementia and their families.

For your reference, the steering group meets approximately every 4-6 weeks at Rothesay House in the town centre of Glenrothes. These meetings usually run from 10-11:30am.

If you’re interested in getting involved in the steering group or would like more information about this work, please contact the Project Manager, Amanda Hunter at [email protected] or 01592 803 800. You can also visit our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/DFGlenrothes

We request that any notes of interest are received by November 20^th at the latest. We will contact you after this date to discuss how you might be able to represent the Glenrothes business community in this role.