Dementia-Friendly America

At the 2015 White House Conference on Aging on July 13, 2015, during the discussion from the first panel on Empowering All Generations: Elder Justice in the Twenty-First Century, one panelist from Minnesota mentioned dementia-friendly communities and the Dementia-Friendly America initiative.  Six cities were mentioned as examples. Minnesota has a website that offers many tools on making a community dementia-friendly or dementia-capable. A dementia-capable community is “[a] dementia capable community is informed, safe and respectful of individuals with the disease, their families and caregivers and provides supportive options that foster quality of life.”  The toolkit is available here.