Wisconsin Rapids will be a dementia-friendly community

The dementia-friendly community concept is rolling out across Wisconsin, in a grassroots wave. At the heart of many communities is the Aging & Disability Resource Center, an agency serving elderly and adults with disabilities, helping connect people with resources.

The ADRCs, as they are called, were tasked earlier this year with leading the charge toward dementia-friendly communities as part of the Dementia-Capable Wisconsin initiative. I learned more about what’s happening in Wisconsin Rapids during the United Way of Inner Wisconsin’s Supportive Community Health Services Roundtable meeting. Erin Johnson of the ADRC of Central Wisconsin updated us on the progress.

The goal of dementia-friendly communities is to make people with dementia feel safe and accepted in their communities. People with dementia report barriers in their daily lives. They worry about getting lost or encountering negative reactions from others. They might be socially isolated, feel shame, have low self-esteem or be depressed.

There are 100,000 people living in Wisconsin with Alzheimer’s disease or other dementia. That number is expected to double by 2030 and double or triple again by 2050. Most of those people will live outside of assisted living facilities like Hilltop. They will live at home or with family members.

In a dementia-friendly community, people who work at local businesses, agencies and organizations we use on a daily basis would be trained on how to identify, approach and interact with people with dementia. This will help people feel more comfortable, knowing that their daily interactions will be with people who understand them. It also will help employees be more comfortable, knowing they’ve been trained to act appropriately and provide an important service to customers.

Stores, restaurants, banks and other businesses and agencies can participate in employee training. The ADRC-CW has set up an initial meeting for anyone interested in being part of the planning group on Dec. 7. If you’d like to participate, let me know, and I’ll get you in touch with the right people. This group will help ensure proper materials are chosen or created, that training is organized and conducted and that businesses are approached and encouraged to take part.

It’s exciting that this concept is coming to Wisconsin Rapids and that we can be a leader in our state.

Dementia-Capable Wisconsin

I listened in on a Wisconsin Department of Health Services, or DHS, webinar recently on Dementia-Capable Wisconsin. Sessions were held around the state, and if you couldn’t attend in person, you could listen online, which is what I chose. (https://www.dhs.wisconsin.gov/dementia/index.htm)

I wasn’t sure what to expect, but it turned out to be an overview of where we are at as a state when it comes to dementia. Some of it I was familiar with, having attended some conferences this year and done some research.

Some key topics addressed were the Music & Memory program (which is fascinating and deserves its own blog post at some point, and which we’d love to do at Hilltop); dementia-friendly communities; dementia training opportunities; and the dementia-friendly employers’ toolkit.

The neat thing about most of these programs is how they are growing organically, from the ground up, not the top down.

Wisconsin was the first state in the country to take on Music & Memory program, and it took off like wildfire. DHS intended to introduce it to nursing homes, and what they found was many more wanting to add it, writing their own grants to get funding and finding creative ways to start the program. Music & Memory creates individual playlists for residents and provides that music on an iPod with headphones. Residents can listen to the music they grew up with and remember, to help put them at ease and to make them feel better. The results can be amazing. (Watch “Alive Inside,” a documentary about how Music & Memory came to be and the lives it has transformed. http://www.aliveinside.us/)

Dementia-friendly communities are springing up across the state. DHS has encouraged communities to take the program and make it their own rather than having it be a government program dictated to communities. There are different takes on it in different places. A toolkit helps provide specific information to specific businesses, for example restaurants or stores.

The employers’ toolkit was put together because most caregivers are still in the workforce. DHS wanted a way to reach them, and it made sense to get to them through work. The toolkit provides resources and helps business owners understand what their workers might be going through as caregivers and how to help them.

After working in a memory care facility and co-facilitating the Alzheimer’s caregiver support group, it’s good to see so much happening in our state to address dementia. It’s good to know there are more resources out there.

My first ground-breaking ceremony

We had glorious weather for our ceremonial ground-breaking Nov. 3, 2015, for Hilltop Grand Village. It was 70 with sun and a breeze. It aided in our event’s success, I’m sure.

Remember, this is Wisconsin -- November in Wisconsin. Some years, we have snow in October, so 70 and shirt-sleeves is a gift.

This was my first ground-breaking. People think if you work for a newspaper you cover a lot of ground-breaking ceremonies. But most are just that – ceremonial. The work usually has begun (which is true for Hilltop Grand Village), and it’s a chance for company leaders and employees to share the project in a public way with financial folks, architects, builders and local dignitaries. It’s a great way to kick off the project. And it’s just something you do. It’s expected, I guess.

It also was my first time planning one. After kicking around some ideas, I went online to figure out what other people do. Turns out most ground breakings are pretty standard, but we wanted ours to be uniquely ours.

Hilltop Grand Village will offer resort-style living for independent seniors. It will offer amenities people likely don’t have at home and activities you might find at resort hotels. It will look like a resort and function like one, too. So, if you were having a ground-breaking for a resort, what would you have? Something classy, right?

Hilltop Grand Village also will have an indoor streetscape where residents and guests can find our many amenities as well as plenty of places to gather and share in our community. It’s nicknamed Broadway, so opening night on Broadway, you’d have a red-carpet event.

The concept was decided.

It actually was easy to find a red carpet and velvet ropes – a family member used them for an event and had them in storage. We pulled together champagne flutes and wine glasses, gold flatware and red table cloths. We bought sparkling wine and cheesecake, and Altmann Construction provided cheese and sausage trays, crackers, water and soda – and the golden shovels. The final touch was swag bags. While they didn’t rival the ones guests get at premieres, they were pretty and provided some tasty and useful treats to our guests.

We had enough special guests in attendance that we did two rounds of tossing shovels full of sand for the cameras. Smiles and applause all around.

The only thing I didn’t take into account was the noise at a construction site. We weren’t planning long or detailed remarks, and our group would be small enough I didn’t anticipate the need for a microphone and loud speaker. Fortunately, River Cities Community Access attended and videotaped the event. Jesse Austin brought a microphone to be able to capture our speakers on video. You can see (and hear!) that video (and ours) here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5VlE-nL4JOZy2Kc6xMQbLP-yXMRL7Wwn

All in all, it was a successful event. And now I can say I’ve not only been to a ground-breaking ceremony, I’ve planned one.