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Background
In Wisconsin, the number of people living with dementia in the year 2040 is expected to be more than double the number from 2015. Some 70 percent of people with dementia are cared for in the community by family members and friends. Many people living with dementia go to stores, restaurants, banks, libraries, and other public spaces.
No matter where you work or live, you can help make your community more dementia friendly. Dementia friendly community groups work to increase public awareness, offer trainings and provide supportive environments to people living with dementia and their family members. These groups challenge the myths and stigma that are still associated with dementia.
The role play simulations in this toolkit were designed to help people better communicate with and advocate for people living with dementia. While the focus of this toolkit is dementia, the skills covered can make it easier to communicate with people who have a range of cognitive abilities.
Who should use this toolkit?
This toolkit was developed for use in classroom and community settings, and piloted with students across the health sciences, dementia friendly community groups, and community service providers.
What does the toolkit contain?
This toolkit includes six role play simulations in different community and healthcare settings. Each setting was chosen because family caregivers, advocates, and experts told us that it was often challenging for people living with dementia.
The six role play simulations involve:
- A bank, where a person living with dementia is making a deposit
- A clinic, where a person living with dementia has a medical appointment
- A pharmacy, where a person living with dementia is refilling a prescription
- A restaurant, where a person with dementia is ordering a meal
- A store, where a person with dementia is shopping for groceries
- A telephone conversation, where a person living with dementia calls the local library for information
This toolkit includes:
- Scripts, setting, and other details to carry out the six role play simulations
- Suggestions for different ways to use the simulations
- Materials to plan and evaluate the simulations
- Additional information related to each simulation
- Community resources
This toolkit also includes videos as part of the role play simulation process. The videos can be viewed online at https://care.nursing.wisc.edu/dementia-friendly-toolkit/. The videos can also be used on their own, as part of dementia friendly trainings for local businesses, agencies, or other organizations.
How should these tools be used?
Each of the role play simulations is designed to help you to:
- Communicate with older adults who have dementia or cognitive impairment, and with their family caregivers
- Interact with people with dementia and their family caregivers in respectful and meaningful ways
- Increase understanding of dementia among community members, service providers, and front-line and professional staff
Some simulation scenarios might be more relevant to your group than others. All will help you practice skills that make communities more dementia friendly.
Leading a group through two simulations—one related to their work or professional role, and another related to everyday personal experiences—can encourage people to consider how to be dementia friendly in different parts of their lives.
Development of this toolkit
The Dementia Friendly Toolkit was developed by a team at the University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Nursing, including faculty with clinical and research expertise in dementia care and led by the School’s Center for Aging Research and Education.
This project was supported by the Ira and Ineva Reilly Baldwin Wisconsin Idea Endowment at UW-Madison and the Helen Daniels Bader Fund of Bader Philanthropies. Additional support was provided by the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health’s Health Innovation Program (HIP), the Wisconsin Partnership Program, and the Community-Academic Partnerships core of the University of Wisconsin Institute for Clinical and Translational Research (UW ICTR), grant 9 U54 TR000021 from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (previously grant 1 UL1 RR025011 from the National Center for Research Resources). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health or other funders.
Please send questions, comments and suggestions to HIPxChange@hip.wisc.edu.
References
McFadden, S. H. (2021). Dementia-friendly communities: Why we need them and how we can create them. Jessica KIngsley Publishers.
Toolkit Citation
Farsetta D, Woywod P, Endicott SE, Bratzke L. Dementia Friendly Toolkit. Center for Aging Research and Education, UW-Madison School of Nursing. Madison, WI; 2024. Available at: http://www.hipxchange.org/toolkit/dementiafriendly
About the Authors
Diane Farsetta, PhD is a biologist with extensive community engagement and nonprofit leadership experience. She is the manager of the Center for Aging Research and Education (CARE) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Nursing. In that role, Dr. Farsetta facilitates campus and community collaborations on projects advancing older adult health and well-being. In 2023, she was named a Morgridge Fellow, which recognizes and furthers community-engaged scholarship at UW-Madison. Dr. Farsetta has helped develop and lead projects to engage older people from under-resourced communities as research advisors, to provide students with community-based learning opportunities on supporting the personhood of people living with dementia, and to develop an online tool offering guidance to family care partners of older adults.
Paula Woywod, DNP, MSN, RN, CHSE co-authored CARE’s Dementia Friendly Toolkit and Dementia Friendly Hospital Toolkit. Previously, she taught School of Nursing students in simulated learning environments. She has practice experience in medical surgical, cardiac, and intensive care settings. She is passionate about incorporating active learning and education to support the care for older adults in clinical and community settings.
Sarah Endicott, DNP, PMHNP-BC, GNP-BC is a board-certified psychiatric-mental health nurse practitioner and geriatric nurse practitioner with experience caring for older adults with complex needs across care settings. Her current clinical practice is geriatric psychiatry in long-term care and on a geriatric psychiatry unit. She teaches in the Doctor of Nursing Practice program at the UW–Madison School of Nursing and serves as a preceptor for students in medicine and nursing. Her interests include the education and support of caregivers for people living with dementia.
Lisa Bratzke, PhD, RN, ANP-BC, FAHA studies cognitive impairment of patients with coronary heart disease, who, according to health data, suffer from concentration or memory difficulties. With coronary heart disease on the rise—40 percent of the U.S. population is projected to have some form of it by 2030—she is examining ways to slow deteriorating cognitive function in this population, thereby improving quality of life for individuals with chronic heart failure.