A study released today shows there are 60,000 New Zealanders currently living with some form of dementia, and those figures are expected to rise to 150,000 by 2050.

The World Alzheimer Report has also revealed one person around the world is diagnosed with dementia every three seconds.

A former Wellington mayor is urging people to wake up to the affects of dementia before it's too late.

Kerry Prendergast's father died 10 years ago after rapidly deteriorating following his diagnosis. She warns people can't just put bad memory down to old age.

"We did that for my Dad. Mum would complain about my Dad's memory and we would say come on he's 73, that's normal. It wasn't normal, it was much more severe than normal."

She said getting onto it early makes a massive difference.

"Only with that can the family get the support they need, the education they need, and in some forms of dementia some medication that may arrest the disease for some time."

Westpac's Lorraine Hunter has found a way to help them out, and is leading a project to make the bank dementia-friendly.

She said the bank's paired up with Alzheimer's Auckland, and is training up staff so they know how to help customers living with the condition.

"It gives them hints and tips of how to interact with them as well. So it's really an up-skilling of the whole organisation," Ms Hunter said. 

"One of the biggest things that people with dementia find is that they are no longer able to manage their finances the way that they were before, so it's really important that as a financial services organisation that we assist them with that."