Action Alliance: Designing a dementia-friendly city

It is estimated that 2/3 of people diagnosed with dementia currently live at home. However the complex environments and systems that are very much part of city life can act as barriers in enabling individuals to access opportunities in the community. A team of people in Sheffield have been exploring what can potentially happen when we start to design environments and buildings around people living with long-term conditions such as dementia.

Lab4Living’s Claire Craig sits on the steering group of the Dementia Action Alliance which was formed in response to the Prime Ministers Challenge. The Alliance has been working with over 300 organisations including banks, shops, museums and theatres across the City to make Sheffield more accessible to people with dementia living in Sheffield. Of the work Claire says, ‘The Dementia Action Alliance’ captures perfectly the importance of working together and of the value that design plays in making the city more accessible for everyone.’