Dementia-Friendly City in Heart of Silicon Valley
Somehow I never thought I’d right that phrase. Yet, Palo Alto is taking steps to become a dementia-friendly city! Palo Alto looks to become a ‘dementia-friendly city’ explains that
Palo Alto is among a growing number of communities around the world that have begun to look at how government, businesses and residents can work together to provide better resources — like training for first responders, community support networks and policies that better aid employees who are also caregivers — for the expanding population of aging adults who are being diagnosed with dementia.
Palo Alton has a little more than 30,000 residents now who have dementia (including Alzheimer’s) and it is estimated that that number will exceed 50,000 by 2030. “As part of its broader push for an “age-friendly Silicon Valley,” Santa Clara County last year joined Dementia Friends, a global movement begun by the Alzheimer’s Society in the United Kingdom to change the way people think about dementia.”
A public hearing on this is scheduled for late March. Thanks to my colleague and dear friend Mark Bauer for alerting me to this article.