Embracing Change: How a Local Business Champions Dementia Awareness
In the heart of the Scottish Central Belt in Dunblane, a dynamic estate and letting agency is redefining what it means to be a community-focused business. Cathedral City Estates is led by Markus and Gemma, who have been married for twenty years, and they want to make an impact for their community members who live with dementia.
“So,” Gemma says, “Dunblane is a dementia friendly community and while we did some training with them a few years back, we found that particularly over the last two years we have been increasingly dealing with clients and their families who are directly affected by dementia.
“We felt there were gaps in our knowledge, and we felt that we could do better. I came to a training day at the DSDC, and I was blown away. All I could think was – let’s do this.”
The training talked about “communication, living space, house design, types of dementia, and how a diagnosis affects both the person and the people around them”, Gemma says, “and the statistics are horrifying.
“It made us emotional. The training hit so close to home, and then we learnt that 1 in 3 of us will be affected by dementia. We have all had direct experience with dementia in our own families and it suddenly made sense.”
Gemma and Markus are part of the Scottish Association of Landlords, and they have reached out to them to advocate for the enhanced dementia training programme offered by DSDC. “I think all letting agents – all estate agents – should be trained on this. There are many supportive measures that can be put in place to assist families that we should all know about. ”
Cathedral City Estates was established in 2003 and is an award-winning, independent, family run Estate Agency based in Dunblane. You can learn more about them here."
Written by Miki Max Fagerli-Schmidt