Dementia and travelling alone

Don’t automatically assume that because of a dementia diagnosis, that someone with dementia is not able to travel alone. It will depend on each individual dementia diagnosis, and the stage of the disease. Taking the right precautions and ensuring the person travelling either has some assistance if they are still able to travel on their own. Don’t underestimate the journey. Travelling can be a stressful activity and airports and train stations can be noisy places, so plan ahead as to what they can do, where they can go and how they can be assisted throughout their journey. 

Remember that despite how healthy they may seem on the outside, the dementia patient may not be able to handle the stress and anxiety of a busy airport and factor in queues, delays and the amount of walking to get across the airport. A dementia patient’s brain has to work harder to process information and too much can lead to overload and agitation.

Things to remember in airports/train stations:

• Airports and train stations can be noisy which in turn will raise anxiety levels

• Lighting in airports is quite artificial and depending on the flooring, it can produce a harsh glare

• Consider flight delays which you cannot guard against and long queues. Dementia patients don’t deal well with either 

• Airports and train stations tend to be busy, with lots of people milling about, which can make it a confusing place to be

• Many planes operate a 3 seat system, so think about how well the dementia patient can be managed with someone they don’t know sitting with them

Airports

Make the flight attendants or the airline company aware that the person travelling has dementia. They may have requirements that a dementia patient needs to be accompanied and that staff cannot provide this support and it is also important to remember whether this is fair on the person diagnosed with dementia. 

Airports now involve more sophisticated check-in procedures than before which rely on technology and certain processes for scanning luggage and yourself. Depending on the stage of diagnosis, the dementia patient may not understand how to queue or to scan their boarding pass to gain access to the departures area. Similarly, the concept of being asked to remove objects to pass through a scanning machine may be overwhelming, and it is unlikely with the queues that they would be able to handle this alone. However, as always with dementia, it is better to consider the patient and what they are capable of, rather than the disease itself. Some dementia patients, may be able to handle this better than others. 

Train station

It may be more difficult to get support on a train journey. If you can find the train conductor, they will be able to assist the person to alight the train, but it might not be possible for any more support to be given. Again thought should be given as to whether it is realistic that a dementia patient should undertake this journey on their own. What if there were delays, or a problem with the train service, meaning that passengers had to disembark from the train at a different station. Equally as trains can be noisy for a dementia patient, they may not be able to cope with the train service.

Hidden disability

It is possible to request a hidden disability lanyard. This helps airport security and staff to identify that a person has an illness that they need support with, may explain any difficulties or challenges that they may be having and also gain them access to further assistance throughout the airport.