Owners and employees of small businesses as well as community members are invited to attend free training designed to help people learn how to work, live and communicate with caregivers and those with Alzheimer’s and dementia.
The training will be 8:30 to 10:30 a.m., Thursday, Feb. 9 at the Aging and Disability Resource Center, W4051 Highway NN, Elkhorn. Space is limited; reservations are required and can be made by calling Eric or Bernadette Russow at (262) 320-7325. Dementia Friendly Community Initiative, a sub-committee of the Walworth County Aging Network, is sponsoring the event.
A dementia friendly community “is one where people living with dementia can feel welcome and are assisted with normal activities of their daily life,” a press release about the training states. In such a community, the goal is for individuals to: recognize possible signs of dementia, community effectively with and assist individuals with dementia, and know how to locate resources in the local community.
The 10 signs of dementia and/or Alzheimer’s include:
- Memory loss that disrupts daily life;
- Challenges in planning or solving problems;
- Difficulty completing familiar tasks at home, at work or in leisure time;
- Confusion with time or place;
- Trouble understanding visual images and spatial relationships;
- New problems with words in speaking and/or writing;
- Misplacing things and losing the ability to retrace steps;
- Decreased or poor judgment;
- Withdrawal from work or social activities, and;
- Changes in mood and personality.
For more information join the Dementia Friendly Community – Elkhorn group on Facebook, which posts similar upcoming events as well as information on the monthly Memory Café meetings at Matheson Memorial Library in Elkhorn.
