More and more communities around the country are coming together to develop inclusive initiatives for our ageing population and the smaller the community the bigger the effort, as one town in Leitrim is proving.

Mohill Town Team is making huge strides in enlisting local support to make their community dementia inclusive.

A number of bigger towns around the country are also working on the HSE’s national Dementia Understand Together campaign with towns in Dublin, Cork, Kerry, Tipperary and Wexford all developing initiatives to support those Iiving with a dementia diagnosis and their carers.

Ageing population

As Leitrim’s first Active Ageing town, community leaders in Mohill felt the Dementia Understand Together campaign was a natural step for them.

Mary Reynolds is chairperson of Mohill Town Team and a member of the Mohill Dementia Understand Together working group. She says the work done so far has shown great buy-in from all sectors of the community.

“Our Town Team is made up of representatives from all the different business and community groups with a common goal of making our town a great place to live, work and do business. We are very aware of our ageing population, which is higher than the national average.

“To that end, we welcomed the HSE Dementia Understand Together team to the community. The facilitator Sharon Richardson gave us a presentation on the challenges facing people with dementia, their carers, and those in the community who are fearful of receiving a dementia diagnosis.

“We’re all of the mindset that as a community we are all in this together so we established a sub-committee within the Town Team and we held a public meeting to share information from that HSE presentation.

“We were amazed by the attendance, we had over 80 people on the night, which bore out the reality that most people know someone who has dementia.”

Mary says the most moving part of that public meeting came when one local women shared her experience of early onset dementia.

“Sharon interviewed a local lady who, in her 50s, has been diagnosed with dementia. She spoke very honestly about the impact the condition has on her life.”

“She is from a farming family and her story affected everyone in the room, especially when she spoke of the confusion she experiences on a regular basis. She said she couldn’t locate the door in the hall as it was painted the same colour as the walls. That one small thing is something we could change that would make a big difference to someone living with dementia.

“That awareness can help make the person feel seen and heard and we want to spread this information as widely as we can to make our community as inclusive as possible,” says Mary.

Elsewhere in the town, the local library has become a meeting point for those with dementia who attend a social group run by the Alzheimer’s Society of Ireland twice a month.

“People come together in a safe space for a range of activities and this also gives carers the chance of a break for an hour, so that they can do something for themselves,” adds Mary.

“We are hoping to set up a dementia café in the town and we are currently trying to identify a suitable premises. We’ve also started to bring local businesses on board such as hairdressers, the pharmacy and hardware shop.

“Our pilot project is seeking to train up an ambassador in each business who can identify the needs of a person with dementia when visiting that premises, and we’ve had a great response so far.

“Our Community Enterprise Centre has conducted an audit of local business premises to see what small changes can be made to make the buildings more dementia friendly. As we discovered at our public meeting it can be something as small and as simple as having different colours on doors to walls, or having labels on the doors, to reduce confusion for people.

“We’re at a very early stage in this, but we want to bring local people with us on this journey. And not just in the town. We have a wide hinterland that takes in rural, farming families and people with dementia can often feel isolated, so we are working to make Mohill fully inclusive for everyone.

“Since our first public meeting, we’ve been able to train 50 local people in dementia awareness, with the help of trainers who came down to Mohill from the Memory Clinic in St James’s Hospital Dementia Unit.

“We facilitated two 90-minute sessions which helped us to see how important it is to be informed, aware and understanding when we meet people with dementia which is an invisible disability.

“We are not experts, but we are drawing expertise from the Understand Together campaign and we are learning from other communities around the country, particularly our neighbours in Cavan, who are aiming to be Ireland’s first dementia-friendly county.”

Dementia awareness

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the first-ever national dementia strategy in Ireland.

Fiona Foley is senior project manager with the Dementia Understand Together Campaign, run by the HSE’s National Dementia Service.

She says dementia awareness in the community has grown over the past decade as more people gain a greater understanding of the condition.

“The first national dementia strategy was delivered in 2015 but back then the condition was stigmatised, often by those who suffered from it and who couldn’t accept their diagnosis and became isolated and very lonely. The stigma also prevented people from seeking a diagnosis in the first place which only exacerbated the issue,” she explains.

“The research we have done over the past 10 years with focus groups comprising of patients, carers and family members – all who have lived experience of dementia – has taught us that no one organisation can tackle it alone. We have engaged with local community groups to shift perceptions about this condition and, by working with dementia patients and their carers, we are informing policy.”

Fiona says the demographic of people with dementia is changing, making the need for inclusive communities even more important.

“The majority of people with dementia are living in their communities and as the age profile gets younger, many of these people are still working and may have young families to care for. The key to this is understanding that person’s experience and moulding the community response to support them as much as possible.

“This is where the dementia friendly town initiative is making huge strides in transforming how people engage with those with dementia.

“A number of organisations across the country including the IFA, Men’s Sheds, Irish Rail, Boots and Park Run have signed up to the campaign where they have committed to train staff in dementia awareness.

“That can include businesses conducting walkability surveys of their premises to see what changes they could make to make the space more accessible for someone with dementia. In the case of Irish Rail, staff have undertaken training so when passengers with dementia are on board, they can work with them to see how their journey experience can be improved or enhanced.

“By working in this way and combining the efforts of local services, businesses and organisations, we are seeing towns, villages and counties making a real impact in the lives of those living with dementia and giving them a better quality of life – which is our ultimate goal.”

For further information on the campaign and how you can work towards building a dementia inclusive community where you live, check out understandtogether.ie/get-involved or email understandtogether@hse.ie.