WESTFIELD – The city has launched an initiative to become a dementia-friendly community by increasing public awareness of memory-loss disease and how to appropriately respond to people afflicted with it.
The City of Westfield, in partnership with Armbrook Village Assisted and Independent Living, has already made a commitment by training 60 of the city’s first responders to recognize memory loss and plans to expand that training to residents, especially those who provide retail and banking services to the city’s senior population.
Mayor Daniel M. Knapik, speaking at a press conference yesteday, said the city’s senior population, residents 60 years of age and older, is now greater than the number of children in city schools.
“The number of folks in our community over the age of 60 is 8,000, part of our population moving rapidly toward retirement age,” Knapik said. “And that population is living longer.”
Knapik said he visited shelters following the Halloween Snowstorm of 2011 and realized that the need to provide memory loss care and services was much greater that he had previously thought.
“We didn’t have a structure in place to take care of them,” Knapik said. “Seniors are a very compelling age bracket because they have contributed to their community.”
Knapik said the Dementia-Friendly Westfield initiative is an educational process, enabling city residents to learn what dementia is and how to appropriately respond to senior citizens who appear confused.
The goal, shared by the city and social services agencies, such as the Noble Visiting Nurse Association which has trained 100 of its clinical staff through the Armbrook Village Assisted and Independent Living training program, is to adopt the “Dementia Friendly” movement by becoming a designated Dementia-Friendly City.
Beth Cardillo, executive director of Armbrook Village, said she became aware of the Dementia-Friendly designation when she read a small article in the AARP magazine about the program in Watertown, Wisconsin and contacted the director of an assisted-living facility who had instituted the program in that community.
Cardillo said that Westfield will be the first city on the East Coast to adopt the program which “all starts with training.”
“We’ve trained many people including 60 first responders and the Noble Visiting Nurse Association staffers,” Cardillo said. “We urge everyone to embrace the program.”
“People with dementia can continue to have a fulfilling life, to continue to be part of the community,” Cardillo said, adding that more community residents need to be trained to recognize symptoms of dementia.
COA Executive Director Tina Gorman, said the staff and volunteers of that agency have or are planning to take the Armbrook Village training program.
“We see this (dementia) every day,” Gorman said. “It’s about education because there are a lot of levels of dementia. It’s about educating the community as to what to do.”
Knapik said that the new senior center now under construction will increase the city’s capability of assisting senior citizens, “to do more to capture, in a positive way, seniors who need to get into assistance programs.”
State Rep. John Velis, D-Westfield, said that he and his family have personal experience in dealing with dementia.
“On a very personal level I thank you for this program because dementia took a toll on my family, with my grandmother,” Velis said. “The elderly have paid their dues, so anything we can do is well deserved.”
Cardillo said that “everybody has a family member or knows someone who has dementia” and needs to “have the tools to help residents with dementia get help.”
“We want people to feel comfortable when encountering a person with dementia and to be able to respond in an appropriate manner,” she said.
