Heathrow Airport has partnered with the Alzheimer’s Society to help change the way the world sees dementia as part of the charity’s Dementia Friendly Communities programme. Heathrow Airport goes dementia friendly by pledging to make its 76,000 workforce dementia aware through the provision of ‘Dementia Friends’ sessions, training and online resources.
The initiative, which is part of the Prime Minister’s 2020 Challenge on Dementia, encourages businesses to sign up to being dementia friendly so people with the disease feel understood and included. Heathrow is leading on transforming air transport in this area.
Worldwide over 47 million people have dementia, with this number projected to rise to over 135 million by 2050. In England alone it is a condition affecting nearly 700,000 people, touching the lives of over half a million carers and costing the UK £26 billion per year.
John Holland-Kaye Chief Executive of Heathrow Airport, said: “Our vision is to give passengers the best airport service in the world. Airports can be particularly stressful for passengers with dementia so we are delighted to be working with the Department of Health and Alzheimer’s Society to make sure that they get the support they need. We have started training our colleagues and making improvements so that we can be the world’s first dementia friendly airport”.
For more information on Heathrow Airport goes dementia friendly go to www.heathrow.com
