Retirement developer McCarthy Stone is to make all employees a Dementia Friend by the end of 2021.
All members of McCarthy Stone’s senior leadership, sales and services team have already been encouraged to sign up as Dementia Friends and all 2,600 employees are set to join this year.
The Alzheimer’s Society’s Dementia Friends programme is the biggest initiative of its kind with more than three million members.
It aims to transform the way the nation thinks, acts and talks about the condition, which currently impacts 850,000 people and is forecast to rise to two million by 2051.
McCarthy Stone, which operates 450 retirement communities around the UK supporting more than 20,000 older people, said it has signed up to the campaign to ensure its employees are aware of the impact of the condition, both in a personal and professional capacity.
“While thankfully few of our customers have dementia, we want all our employees to understand how it might impact someone, recognising where we need to be more understanding, patient and kind to support those with the disease, and to ensure our communities are suitably designed,” added chief executive John Tonkiss.
McCarthy Stone’s internal campaign is led by Alex Fleming, the company’s dedicated health and wellbeing adviser.
Employees and customers of McCarthy Stone will also be supporting Denim for Dementia Day on 21 May, which will be delivered through its new Charitable Foundation.
