DEMENTIA-FRIENDLY CANADA PROJECT
WHATFree tools and resources to promote dementia accessible environments for those living with dementia and their caregivers along with dementia friendly training for individuals and businesses.
WHYTo foster dementia inclusive communities, environments and services and dementia friendly workplaces across Canada.
WHEREDementia-Friendly Canada Project.
Alzheimer Societies of Canada. Canada.
Alzheimer Societies of Canada. Canada.
Program Description
“…and that's part of the problem isn't it, how is someone with Alzheimer's disease supposed to look you can't see the degeneration of someone's brain from the outside.”
“We all have a role in creating inclusive dementia friendly communities so that people like me and the guys in my support group can keep on living as well as possible people with dementia need to get out we need to socialize and get exercise sometimes to do this we need a little push and extra support from our friends and families but also from our communities from the cashier the grocery store or the bus driver to the staff of the local community center or from the folks just out walking on the street the first step to doing that is dismissing the stereotypes we hold about people with dementia.”
-video: ‘Jim's Story Dementia Friendly Communities’ by AlzheimerBC.
“A dementia-friendly community is a place where people living with dementia, their families and care partners feel included and supported. While creating dementia-friendly communities, individuals and organizations should focus on both the physical and social environments to ensure they are fully accessible.” -alzheimer.ca
“Often we feel left out and worried about how we'll be treated by others sometimes don't understand what dementia is and how it affects the brain or know what to do if we forget something or get confused so they seem frustrated or dismissive and sometimes the places we'd like to go are just more difficult to get around. I once got lost trying to find the washrooms in a restaurant because of the loud music poor lighting and confusing signs but it doesn't have to be like this.”
-video: What is a dementia-friendly community? By Alzheimer Society of Canada
The Dementia-Friendly Canada project provides dementia friendly training and education for the public and professionals.
The project aims to:
-Train Canada’s workforce to be dementia friendly.
-Promote and educate the general public about dementia through awareness campaigns and resources.
-Achieve sustainability and ensure growth of the Dementia-Friendly Canada initiative across the country.
Dementia Training is available on the following topics:
- Building Dementia-Friendly Communities: Recreation and Library, Restaurant and Retail, and Public Transportation. How businesses can better support and include people living with dementia. Characteristics of dementia-friendly communities and identifying physical and social barriers in communities.
- Tips for Dementia-Friendly Interactions – how to approach someone with dementia, positioning, eye contact, support the person’s reality by connecting not correcting, avoid asking the person to multitask, supporting someone who is lost or wandering by explaining why you are approaching, don’t croud them, ask how you can help, speak slowly, call for help.
- Dementia-Friendly Language Guidelines – use positive language that does not make assumptions about ability, reinforce myths and stigma or create barriers to inclusion.
- Tips for Dementia-Friendly Spaces - such as lighting, sound, surfaces, signs, furniture and layout and accessible bathrooms.
- Dementia-friendly policies, practices and services - for organizations including customer-facing staff, management and key decision-makers.
The Project published the Dementia Journey Survey to better understand the experiences of People of Colour (BIPOC) communities living with dementia and barriers that prevent them from seeking diagnosis, accessing dementia care, reinforced stigma and isolation, and more. The survey found:
- Gaps in education and support for physicians.
- Lack of culturally relevant community resources for people living with dementia.
- Access to specialists.
- The need for improved communication by physicians around care and diagnosis, especially for people from different backgrounds who regularly face even more systematic hurdles.
Dementia Friendly resources are available in Chinese, Punjabi, Hindi and Spanish.
source: alzheimer.ca
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