City of York Council is urging residents and businesses across the city to support the new Dementia Friends campaign.

Dementia is arguably the biggest health crisis facing the UK1: there are currently 665,065 people in England who have dementia2 and an estimated twenty-one million people in England have a close friend or family member with dementia8– because they live with or care for someone who has dementia.

In York it is thought there are 2,725 people currently living with dementia and this is expected to rise to 3,209 by 2020.

The campaign, launched by Public Health England and Alzheimer’s Society, is encouraging people in York to become a Dementia Friend by watching a short interactive video online to increase their understanding of the disease and implementing their experience on a daily basis. A number of businesses with shops in York have already signed up to the campaign and will be encouraging their employees to become Dementia Friends, including Marks & Spencer, Lloyds Bank and Superdrug.

Paul Edmondson-Jones, Director of Health and Wellbeing, City of York Council, said: “One in three of us over the age of 654 will develop dementia, an incredibly high statistic. But people with dementia can live well, and it is the responsibility of the rest of the community to help them do so.

“It is only by personally understanding the issues that people living with dementia face, can we fully appreciate the challenges they have to overcome on a day-to-day basis. By participating in the short information session to become a Dementia Friend, you are playing crucial role in helping us take one step closer to creating a dementia-friendly society.”

The campaign aims to create a network of one million Dementia Friends across England by 2015. As part of the campaign, adverts will appear on TV and online from 7 May 2014.

For further information on the campaign and how to become a Dementia Friend, please visit http://www.dementiafriends.org.uk/