Dementia Jersey is encouraging other island businesses to follow suit, as it takes practical steps to make its office more accessible to those with declining mental functions.

The charity has opened its new dementia-friendly office today (19 November), in an attempt to make seeking support as easy as possible for people with the disease and their families. 

Dementia friendly office: bright colours and clear signage

Claudine Snape, the charity's CEO, tells us what being 'dementia friendly' actually means: 

"The sorts of things you might consider are the signage and the way-finding . Is it very, very clear where the reception is, how to get to the toilet, where the exit and meeting rooms are?.

"You're also looking to create some colour contrast with door frames, doors, toilet seats, things like that."

Dementia-friendly bathroom: colour-contrasting toilet and accessible hand railings

Claudine also has advice for what to avoid:

"Just thinking about some of things you might have unwittingly bought that might be a problem...if you have a dark, circular rug in reception, that can look like a black hole to people with dementia, so you might find them skirting around the edges. 

"You might have a patterned carpet with squiggly lines, and that can look like snakes to people with dementia.

"So there are things you can easily change to make it a bit more dementia-friendly."