Stansted Airport will help passengers with dementia

Stansted Airport in London, together with the Alzheimer's Society, has launched a unique training program for the employees. More than 1,000 Stansted Airport staff have become Dementia Friends and completed awareness training so they can help passengers with hidden disabilities when the travel through the airport.

The training looks at the whole airport environment and how it can present extra challenges to people living with dementia. It’s one of several schemes the airport has in place to make the airport accessible for people with hidden disabilities, including dementia, autism, and disabilities which aren’t obviously visible to others.

The airport uses the Sunflower Scheme, where passengers can wear an Airport Awareness Sunflower lanyard or floret available at Stansted and other UK airports, to discreetly indicate to staff that they have a hidden disability and would like additional support. Staff are trained to recognize these identifiers and offer extra help during a passenger’s journey through the terminal.

Lucy Martin, Accessibility Manager at London Stansted Airport, notes: “We’re delighted to reach this major milestone which will help our staff better support passengers and their families affected by dementia and make their journeys as smooth and comfortable as possible. An airport can be particularly stressful for a passenger living with dementia, so we’ve teamed up with the Alzheimer’s Society to make sure that they get the best support possible at every point during the airport journey. Our aim is to train all our staff across all levels and roles and encourage the 200 on-site companies to adopt the training too and work with us towards London Stansted being a dementia-friendly airport.”