A £500,000 project to help reduce stress for dementia patients and make their lives more dignified officially opens at a Bradford Hospital on Friday.

Staff are putting the finishing touches to the extensive renovations at St Luke’s Hospital, which include two new gardens, new signs and newly decorated corridors with artwork.

The aim of the £513,000 of Department of Health scheme is to improve Bradford patients’ experience. Bradford Teaching Hospitals’ dementia project manager Danielle Woods said: “This nine-month initiative called Yorkshire At Its Best has been a real community effort.

“Patients, the public, people living well with a dementia, local voluntary organisations, the Alzheimer’s Society, Carers’ Resource and Meri Yaadain, have all worked together to have their say on what they’d like to see in our dementia-friendly transformation scheme.

“A lot of research and thought has gone into designing the right type of signage to support the different needs of the many people, from across the district and beyond, who use St Luke’s Hospital.

“Creating dementia-friendly surroundings is so important as they can help patients to be more independent, reduce stress and make their lives more dignified.” Organisers hope the public join Friday’s free event, 10am -2pm, at the hospital, in Little Horton Lane.

Landscape designer Adele Adams, and a team of artists commissioned by Helen Kitchen at Lime Art, developed the two dementia-friendly gardens within the Horton Wing where people can sit and recuperate. Visual aids will help patients move more easily around St Luke’s. We hope that the renovations we have made will help dementia patients when they come to our hospital,” added Mrs Woods.

Trust chief executive Bryan Millar will welcome guests at 10.30am and a member of the scheme’s project board, who has Alzheimer’s, will officially open the wing on behalf of the 6,000 people living with dementia across the district. Guests can also find out more about services to help people to live well with dementia. The St Luke’s scheme started after the Trust’s refurbishment proposal secured money from the Prime Minister’s Challenge on Dementia Fund.