Push for ‘dementia friendly’ communities gaining ground
The Watertown effort includes a “Memory Cafe,” a monthly coffee-shop support and social group for people with dementia and their caretakers.
The hope in Watertown is to have as many businesses as possible learn more about how to better serve people whose decline in memory or other thinking skills is affecting their everyday activities.
The goal is to train 75 percent of the community’s businesses by 2016, said Jan Zimmerman, director of dementia outreach and education for the Lutheran Home Association, which runs retirement communities in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Florida.
“Our goal is to help educate the community, help get rid of the stigma that is still associated with it and to create a community that those living with dementia are still a vital part of,” said Zimmerman, who spearheaded the Watertown effort in 2013 and has helped train nearby communities.
In Minnesota, a website offers advice on how to be dementia friendly and includes down-loadable documents, training videos and statistics.
Mastry has organized a “Dementia Friendly America” coalition consisting of police chiefs, city officials and representatives from the Alzheimer’s Association, nonprofit aging advocacy group Leading Age and AARP.