Art helping dementia patients in North Wales

A project helping people with dementia to create art is being celebrated at a local craft centre.

Engage Cymru brings together people with dementia in the Ruthin area, providing them with equipment and supervision to get involved with arts and crafts, the BBC reports.

The older people who have joined the course get to have fun and create, while also making vital social connections with other people.

Now the work of the group is to be displayed in an exhibition in Ruthin Craft Centre, as part of a research project to see how art can help people to cope with dementia symptoms.

"With people with dementia we've had an interesting response and it's been an eye-opener for people who didn't realise these things were possible," local artist Jan Gardner, who helps to run the workshops, told the news provider.

According to the Alzheimer's Research Trust, there are around 820,000 people in the UK currently living with dementia.

Read more about Barchester's dementia care homes