Alliance to help beat dementia-related house fires

The South Yorkshire Dementia Action Alliances won funding from South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Authority's funding scheme, the Stronger Safer Communities Reserve.

The money is being used to support the Dementia Fire and Home Safety Project.

Under the scheme, co-ordinators in each of South Yorkshire's four districts will promote fire safety to a range of organisations working with people living with dementia and their carers, in a bid to reduce the risk of fire and the associated consequences.

 Part of the co-ordinators’ role includes promoting the fire service’s home safety check service, where trained fire service staff visit people’s homes and talk to them about preventing fires and other accidents and fit smoke alarms where needed.

They will also encourage organisations to sign up to South Yorkshire Fire and  Rescue’s Safe and Well partnership.

The project will also work with the fire service on a safety campaign specifically targeting those living with dementia and their carers, including a number of roadshows across the county.

More than 15,000 people across South Yorkshire have been diagnosed with dementia, with thousands more thought to be undiagnosed.  

Dementia is known to be a major factor involved in accidental house fires and fire-related injuries and deaths.

Officers believe the project will benefit the fire service by providing a vital link with one of its key target groups in terms of vulnerability to fire.

Area Manager Steve Helps, said: “In the last decade, the fire service has helped to make South Yorkshire safer than it has been at any time in its history in terms of house fires and fire related deaths and injuries.

“But we believe we can play a much wider role in terms of tackling some of the big health challenges our country faces in the future.

“This project is the perfect illustration of that aspiration, where we use the coordinated efforts and expertise of those at the frontline of dementia care to improve the lives of one of the most vulnerable groups in society.”

South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue is also a member of the Yorkshire & Humber Dementia Alliance, which is committed to tackling the growing issue of dementia within our communities.

Hundreds of its staff have also signed up to become Dementia Friends — a Government backed initiative which teaches people a little bit more about what it's like to live with dementia, and then turns that understanding into action.

South Yorkshire Dementia Action Alliance won £149,000 to support the project over two years.

For more information about the Dementia Fire and Home Safety Project email [email protected] or for more information on preventing fires visit www.syfire.gov.uk.