People with dementia – spending risks and challenges
Retail Therapy
International Longevity Centre UK
October 2022
People with dementia often struggle to get to and around the shops and buy what they want and need, find shopping stressful, and worry about financial abuse and people taking advantage of them.
This report finds key changes could make a real difference for people with dementia who want to enjoy shopping. It calls for:
- regulators to recommend shops provide training for front-line staff to understand how to support people with dementia in shops.
- shops and online services to explore adopting ‘slow shopping’, developing ways for people to take their time to buy things.
- technological innovations such as a hidden disabilities digital lanyard could easily identify and support people with dementia and cognitive impairments to shop safely.
- transport providers to better provide real-time transport information to help people with dementia to navigate around towns and cities.
- a review of the Lasting Power of Attorney process which will help people with dementia enjoy their money more, while dealing with the risk of financial abuse.
