PEOPLE with dementia are being targeted by a new partnership between health experts and fire bosses.

Strathclyde Fire and Rescue (SFR) is taking part in the initiative with NHS staff to help stop fires in the homes of vulnerable people.

A joint training programme is teaching health workers to look for fire dangers – and firefighters to look for early signs of dementia.

Set up by NHS worker Pete Gilfedder and dementia consultant Sandra Shafii, the scheme will begin by training all five watches at Motherwell Fire Station.

And thousands of health professionals will also be involved as the scheme progresses.

Ms Shafii said: "It is important that older people can remain in their own homes and health professionals are working much more now to ensuring they can do that safely and confidently.

"People with dementia have a greater vulnerability to accidents – they have problems with making decisions, memory and thinking things through.

"Also, families may think they are helping the person but are actually making things worse.

"In one case, a family had locked the house of a person with dementia to stop them wandering off but the house caught fire and, very sadly, the person died."

Ms Shafii was at a fire brigade event in Tayside when was struck by the high number of fatalities linked to older people.

She realised how helpful it would be to get fire safety information out to people who have dementia and approached SFR.

Now, under a new scheme, SFR and Allied Health Professionals (AHPs) are working together to report cases of people with dementia to each other.

AHPs are being trained to look for people who may be vulnerable to house fires both while they are in hospital and during home visits.

Anyone who could potentially be at risk is referred to SFR for a home fire safety visit, which will be carried out with a health worker.

Firefighters can put practical steps in place to help make the home of a person with dementia much safer.

At the same time, firefighters are being trained to look for the early signs of dementia in people whose homes they are attending.

This could be during a home fire safety visit or during a live incident.

Bosses said the work is all the more important as Scotland faces an aging population and with it a growing number of people with dementia.

SFR already has an Older Person Strategy in place and the new dementia strategy is a follow on from this.

NHS liaison officer Mr Gilfedder has been seconded to SFR for the past 18 months.

He said: "Carelessness and forgetfulness are the most common causes of fires, not just for older people or people with dementia, so when you factor in those two extra issues you can see that there is a problem needing to be addressed."

catriona.stewart@ eveningtimes.co.uk

STRATHCLYDE Fire & Rescue is urging members of the public to "Join The Fight Against Fire."

The campaign aims to highlight how the organisation can support older people – helping them to live in their own homes safely – by delivering tailored fire-safe solutions.

They also want to encourage people to keep themselves, their neighbours and their communities safe.

Call 0800 0731 999 or text CHECK to 61611 for more information.