DEMENTIA Friendly Troon and Villages were awarded funding at the recent Troon Locality Decides event.

The group received £5,000 after winning the support from the public at the event on Saturday, February 10 at the Troon Concert Hall.

The funding is hoped to go towards developing and delivering training packages to key community groups, businesses and schools to work directly with the residents of Troon and the surrounding villages.

Jim Baird, Locality Manager of Alzheimer Scotland and Secretary of Dementia Friendly Troon & Villages was thrilled with the result.

He said: “This funding will enable DFT&V to develop a training package and deliver this package to key community groups, businesses and others that work directly with the residents of Troon and villages.

“This training will be practical, tailored to the specific needs of the organisation, and delivered using tried and tested learning aids.

"A key component of the training will involve developing an understanding of how dementia affects peoples’ sensory and spatial capacity, and how changes to the physical environment can have a huge impact for people with dementia.

"The training will aim to share insight on how best to design and/or modify a retail space, and office, a church hall or a community facility.

"Residents of local communities are often unsure of how to relate to people with dementia, even friends of long standing, and this ignorance leads to poor communication, or, worse, no communication at all.

“This can lead to social isolation and loneliness – some simple training in the do’s and don’ts will equip people to be able to continue to interact with one another in an empathetic and inclusive way.”

Any association or business keen to access training can contact Jim on jbaird@alzscot.org