A REPORT by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation has highlighted the pioneering work being carried out in Bradford to tackle dementia.

The national research group's publication, How can we make our cities dementia friendly? Sharing the learning from Bradford and York, praises Bradford's work in creating a dementia friendly community for sufferers since 2011, with support from Bradford Council.

The local project was established before Prime Minister David Cameron announced his Dementia Challenge in 2012.

The city has also developed a focus group of people with dementia and carers, who have shared their experiences and offered mutual support and encouragement. A guide to dementia for people from the lesbian, gay and bisexual and trans community has also been created locally.

It is estimated more than 5,000 people have dementia in the Bradford district, which will increase to 6,000 by 2025.

Bradford and District Older People's Alliance and the University of Bradford have also run road shows for black and minority ethnic communities in the district.

The area's Face it Together project, led by people with dementia, has also been involved in a range of activities including offering feedback on The Broadway shopping centre in Bradford and advising on St Luke's Hospital's refurbishment.

Dementia friendly communities are places where people with dementia are "understood, respected and supported".

An Alzheimer's Society spokesman said: "We have worked closely with and been funded by Bradford Council and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) as part of our work in Bradford working towards becoming a dementia friendly city.

'The aim of the Bradford Dementia Friendly Communities Programme is to try to make the whole of Bradford as dementia friendly as possible.

"We are achieving this by engaging with communities across the city and working with a wide range of businesses, third sector organisations and other groups encouraging and supporting them to be more dementia friendly. These include major retailers, Gurdwaras, banks and shopping centres.

"Huge progress has been made over the past few years in this work and we are delighted that the JRF has evaluated the success of our work in Bradford in its new suite of reports on building dementia friendly communities.

"Joseph Rowntree and Bradford Council have now agreed to fund Alzheimer's Society work for a further two years in a bid to create a dementia friendly council and we will be working closely with councillors and Council officers to towards this goal."

Bradford continued its pioneering work in the field last month by opening a £2.5 million world-class unit for assessing dementia patients at Bradford's Lynfield Mount Hospital.

The JRF report concluded: "The evaluators identified Bradford's key strengths as its local focus, addressing diversity and inclusion, supporting and networking between groups, business engagement with key players and in certain locations, and impacting on then strategic partnership agenda.

"If dementia friendly communities like Bradford and York are to be a reality for the future, they now need to be developed into long-term programmes."