Gary Wells, community development officer at the award winning local care company Home Instead Senior Care, is supporting Tesco Extra to become the first dementia friendly store in Stockport.
Gary met Claire Walton, community champion at Tesco Stockport, at a local dementia group and the pair decided to work together to provide support for shoppers with dementia. Now Gary is training the Tesco team to recognise the signs of dementia in customers and to provide shoppers with help when needed.
Home Instead specialises in providing a high standard of non-medical care to seniors in their own homes, throughout Stockport and Tameside. The company’s dementia care specialists run regular training sessions for the family members of people with dementia, with the aim of supporting them to provide the care and assistance that their loved ones need. Now Gary has delivered four sessions of the Home Instead dementia friends training to the Tesco Extra team, extending dementia care into the community.
Gary said:
“It has been wonderful to work with Tesco Extra to help create Stockport’s first dementia friendly store. I have suggested to Claire that the store could provide a slower checkout lane, additional signage and a foot mat at the front entrance and my suggestions have been taken on board.
“Four training sessions in, the store is already so much more able to assist customers with dementia and I hope this success will inspire other local retail outlets to follow suit.”
Claire Walton, community champion at Tesco Stockport, said,
“Having met Gary Wells of Home Instead Senior Care at a dementia Café I volunteered at in Reddish, he inspired me to change Tesco Stockport into a dementia friendly store. As a store we feel part of the community and we are always striving to offer all our customers a great experience when they shop with us. With Gary’s help and expertise, the steps we are taking will do just that for people affected by dementia. We are all enjoying this journey, thanks to him.”
Photo caption: Gary Wells, Home Instead, Claire Walton, Community Champion & Mark Stewart Manager of Tesco Stockport