Cumbria Police to pilot dementia training

Police officers are to be given training in dealing with people with dementia.

Cumbria Police is spending £15,000 on a pilot scheme with support group Dignity in Dementia.

The organisation said understanding particular behaviour triggers could help to safeguard the “well-being and dignity” of people with the disease.

Insp Paul Latham said police officers were “no experts in this field” and needed a basic understanding.

Earlier this year Dr Laura Phipps, from Alzheimer’s Research UK, said it was important “people within the community and within the police and legal system” were aware of rarer forms of dementia that “tend to affect behaviour and personality first”.

The charity said on Monday that one in three people born in the UK this year is likely to develop the illness.

Officers in the Northumbria force were given training in 2013 to help them recognise the signs of dementia and deal with the needs of people with the disease.

Source BBC News