Porter Place, a memory care facility in Tinley Park, is aiming to make the community dementia friendly by training first responders as well as community members on how to handle people who might have memory issues, especially dementia.
Meredith Morris, a community relations director for Porter Place, said they approached the village in 2020 before the COVID-19 pandemic, in a bid to make the town more accommodating.
That support is widespread and, in part, comes from Trustee William Brennan, the chairperson of the town’s Public Safety Committee who said dementia his mother has dementia.
Brennan said he approached Porter Place for help with his mother and they, in turn, approached him in hopes of educating the town. Brennan, who is also a former paramedic, said his mom has, on occasion, simply wandered out of the house.
“Recently I was out to dinner in Tinley and my sister called and she said ‘Hey, mom’s gone,’ Brennan said.
He explained that his mother lives with her husband, who is older than she is and has mobility issues.
“She can move a little bit quicker than he does,” Brennan said. “That’s why I reached out to Porter Place, to get some additional help with her. But these incidents happen all the time and I know she’s not the only one.”
People with dementia can pose a danger to themselves but also to people in the community who don’t understand the memory loss disease and how to safely interact with people who have it, Morris said.
Some 5 million Americans have dementia and 15 million Americans are caregivers to dementia patients.
Brennan said he doesn’t know how many people in Tinley Park are dementia patients, but he expects it’s somewhat common based on the support the initiative has had in the year or so since it was introduced.
“Everyone’s been very supportive of it, everyone knows someone who has dealt with this personally or a family friend and everyone’s been very supportive. I can’t thank them enough,” he said.
He said it could take another two years on the outside to get the certification but it’s more about education. He said it’s important to remind the public what people with dementia might need and educate them on how to interact with dementia patients.
It’s more than memory loss, Brennan said. Sometimes people with dementia are more anxious or scared or even angry because they’re unsettled from what they expect the world to be. His mother, he said, still looks for his father who died 13 years ago, or other family, long passed.
“When you’re dealing with a dementia patient, you’re not dealing with that person in their right frame of mind,” he said. “My mom these days, it’s not dealing with her like when I was growing up. Let alone the forgetfulness, they’re not the same person. They might be more on edge than they otherwise would be.”
Morris said that as a large wave of a generation ages, it’s important the community is aware of dementia.
“The time is right to work toward this designation,” Morris explained.
Dementia is not a single disease and it could affect anyone, she said.
“Probably it’s about 70% of dementia are Alzheimer’s disease. Dementia is an umbrella term, but we also have alcohol abuse related dementia, Parkinson’s dementia and a whole host of other dementias,” she said.
The designation would indicate that public servants, mainly the police and other first responders, understand what dementia means and can recognize the signs of the illness. It would also cover other community leaders, including business owners and anyone who interfaces with the public.
Hannah Lipman, assistant Tinley Park village manager, said the certification could come in over a year, and it will help residents.
“There are currently only 19 communities in Illinois with the designation, and we hope to be number 20,” said Lipman.
He said the village has assembled an action team with members from various community sectors, and held a kickoff event with a speaker from Rush Alzheimer’s Disease Center. The action team will work to offer dementia recognition training for front line staff in all sectors and raise awareness throughout the community.
Advocates hope it will reduce the number of violent or otherwise harmful interactions with dementia patients. Morris said people with dementia could act strangely, walk away from their homes and seem as if they’re a threat or in danger when they’re not at all.
“A dementia friendly village looks like a community in which people who have dementia are safe, and they have some more eyes on them beyond their family and their immediate caregivers when something doesn’t look quite right,” said Morris.
She said sometimes this behavior isn’t criminal, but it could be detrimental to the person and may be misinterpreted.
“I really feel for police officers who may be faced with someone who’s acting a little funny and may not know what’s going on,” she said.
Lipman echoed those sentiments. And, she added, the disease costs every taxpayer.
“Dementia is one of the quickest growing public health concerns, yet it doesn’t seem to garner much attention,” she said. “Unless a treatment to slow, stop or prevent the disease is developed soon, in 2050, Alzheimer’s is projected to cost the nation more than $1.1 trillion. This dramatic rise includes more than threefold increases both in government spending under Medicare and Medicaid and in out-of-pocket spending.”
She said she, like Brennan, has intimate understanding of how memory loss can affect families.
“Based on our experiences with the disease, we know how it truly takes a village, and we wanted to be able to offer support and resources for other families in Tinley Park who are in similar situations,” Lipman said. “We also see it as an opportunity to help educate those who are not as familiar with the diseases, so that those living with dementia within Tinley Park can maintain a high quality of life.”
Morris also said people with dementia are at risk for being scammed, and businesses need to be aware of signs this may be happening.
“When someone’s asking to do something unusual in a bank, maybe call the family and dig a little deeper,” she said.
She said the Park Place educators have already established a dialogue with community stakeholders, but they need to push toward educating the public.
“If we can push out educational and training programs to people who own businesses, who own restaurants and the people who are first responders in the community, the more we can educate what dementia can look like and how to interact effectively in a way that doesn’t scare or confuse someone with dementia, the better off the community would be,” she said.
To start that process, Morris said Porter Place is available to any group interested in training how to recognize and interact with people who have dementia.
“It could be a business or a church group or a social group, it doesn’t matter,” she said.
For more information, call Porter Place at 708-781-1050.
Jesse Wright is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
