Slide 1 BLUE UMBRELLA PROJECT: Building a Dementia Friendly Community in Blind River Lisa Meschino Dementia Friendly Communities Coordinator Blind River The Alzheimer Society of Sault Ste. Marie launched The Blue Umbrella Project pilot in Blind River as part of the Alzheimer Society of Ontario s focus on dementia-friendly (and seniorfriendly) communities. Thanks to the generosity of Cameco Corporation s employee giving campaign, the Alzheimer Society has been able to hire a Dementia-friendly Communities Coordinator to implement the Blue Umbrella Project out of a dedicated satellite office on the main retail street in Blind River. The following is a summary report on the development and progress of the Project to date.
Slide 2 BLUE UMBRELLA PROJECT: Living Well with Dementia Personal Identifiers Community Identifier Public Training Training Package with tools Identify Educate Public Exposure changing the face of dementia Redefine Promote Awareness Advertising Campaign Posters/Flyers Media The Blue Umbrella Project is unique in its design. Not only does it provide free education, but also, it consists of the necessary components of identification (for both businesses and individuals) and promotion to redefine public perceptions of dementia. Also, the Project is unique in that it is designed for businesses, family care partners, and persons with dementia to be actively involved in all aspects of its implementation.
Slide 3 Project Model: Blue Umbrella *This will change based on model each local Society is following Training Walkabout 2 Week Followup Decal & Directory Secret Shopper Ongoing Support as Needed Based on the original Bobcaygeon pilot of the Project, the suggested implementation model involves the following steps: Promotional walkabouts where the Project Coordinator and a person with dementia or family care partner introduce the project to local businesses; A 1-hour Dementia Friendly Communities training session for interested businesses provided by a public education coordinator and a person living with dementia. (At the end of the session, participants receive a package with guidelines for maintaining a dementia-friendly status); A follow-up site visit is conducted within 2 weeks of the training session where trained businesses receive a Blue Umbrella decal to display in the shop window and discuss how they ve implemented the information; A visit by a Secret Shopper (person with dementia) to evaluate the dementia-friendliness of the trained business within a month of the training A further follow-up visit by the Project Coordinator 3 months after training to determine what further training needs. The beauty of this Project model is its adaptability to the individual community where it is being piloted.
Slide 4 What does the Blue Umbrella Project look like in Blind River? What did the Blue Umbrella Project look like in Blind River? How did we adapt the model to best serve the needs of the community? And how did the relationships we formed with business owners and residents of Blind River guide the Project? What follows is a look at local activity, initiatives, and partnerships that have developed in the last eight months of the project.
Slide 5 Living well in our community PEOPLE: Being with family, friends Supporting/helping others PLACE: being outdoors, in nature, by the water ACTIVITES: Participating in social activities Having fun; being active WELLBEING: Having independence, freedom, health Feeling safe Being kind Accepting others; respecting differences Blind River is a very community-minded town; Residents do not stand on formalities when it comes to looking out for each other. Over the course of conversations and education sessions, residents have let me know what is important to their quality of life: PEOPLE: Being with family, friends Supporting/helping others PLACE: Being outdoors, in nature, by the water ACTIVITES: Participating in social activities Having fun; being active WELLBEING: Having independence, freedom, health Feeling safe Being kind Accepting others; respecting others differences This knowledge shaped the development of the Project model in Blind River, as has the guidance from our advisory committee.
Slide 6 Blue Umbrella Advisory Committee Lori Guindon, family care partner Beth Laderoute, North Shore Health Network Rene Mader, Mitchell s Pharmacy Lisa Roy-Sidock, Cameco Corporation Theresa Wishart, PSW, Mississauga First Nation The Advisory Committee met every two months. Members of the committee represented a diverse cross-section of the community, including the perspectives/voices of a family care partner, representatives from prominent businesses and health sector, and a representative from the neighbouring First Nations reserve. This diversity of perspectives propelled our ability to understand the education and support needs of this particular community. The committee was pivotal in helping to create concrete strategies for promoting the program in the community, approaching specific businesses, recruiting persons with dementia, and promoting our caregiver support group.
Slide 7 Project Model: Blue Umbrella *Blind River Version Walkabout & Training & Decal Initial assessment 3-6 month follow-up with selfassessment Ongoing Support as Needed This learning was invaluable for personalizing our Project model and guiding how we promoted Blue Umbrella in Blind River and how we provided education and training. As a result, our actual Project model was streamlined to the following steps: Walkabout with standardized assessment tool (to open an initial conversation with businesses); A training session (with flexible length that suits each business time commitment) and a takeaway support package that includes the Blue Umbrella decal; A follow-up visit with self-assessment tool 3-6 months after training. [Based on the volunteer pool and in consultation with our provincial Blue Umbrella working group, we eliminated the secret shopper in favour of a self-assessment tool. As well, a lengthier time period for follow-up suited the work flow of the Blind River businesses.]; Ongoing support casual conversations that occur with business owners, employees, and residents help to nurture the working relationship with the Alzheimer Society and provide insight into any emerging needs for those establishments regarding further training.
Slide 8 Promotion Number Expressions of MONTH of Events Interest August 1 20 September 5 1 October 1 15 November 2 6 December 0 10 January 4 6 February 1 5 March 1 5 April 2 1 May 2 0 June 2 2 July 2 4 August 2 0 September 4 0 TOTAL 27 74 What did we accomplish to date through our Blue Umbrella activity? In the 13 months since we opened our doors on Woodward Avenue, we maintained a consistent and evolving promotional campaign involving: Posters Brochures Public outreach in the form of an Open House and ongoing public information sessions Media (in our early months of the Project s launch we were interviewed by the Moose radio station twice and written up in two newspapers) Word of mouth was probably our biggest promotional tool and reflected the character of this project in Blind River. Word of mouth included our walkabouts, but also our participation in local events like the Moonlight Madness, Church luncheons, and Community Day. The result was a steady, growing interest in our support for community members.
Slide 9 Education Quarter Number of businesses trained Number of people trained Q3 (Oct-Dec) 6 53 Q4 (Jan-Mar) 18 36 Q1 (Apr-Jun) 8 36 Q2 (Jul-Sept) 6 17 TOTAL 38 142 Total Number of Pin Participants = 3 In the 13 months of conducting our education sessions, we ve trained: 142 people from 38 businesses This includes: Pharmacy and main street retail stores North Shore family clinic, hospital, and long-term care staff Mississauga First Nations health workers BR Fire Department BR public library OPP Post office (to name a few) This number is a conservative calculation based only on the number of participants from businesses who completed our feedback forms. It does not include people trained at public events. For example, in May, I trained 90 hospital auxiliary volunteers at their annual conference. This brings the actual number of people educated to 232! Additionally, we found 3 community members living with dementia who wanted to wear the Blue Umbrella pin.
Slide 10 Success and Surprises 1. Depth of our reach in the community 2. Brand recognition: Blue Umbrella logo; our office 3. Contribution to research on the Blue Umbrella Project Successes and Surprises included: 1) The depth of our reach in the community: not only main businesses, but reaching diverse sectors of the population through education sessions at hospitals, schools, seniors residences, seniors cultural group, and Rotary Club. 2) Brand recognition: People in town started to comment on how they were seeing more Blue Umbrella decals around town! Residents were recognizing our presence in the community, the program, and the work we were doing. And they increasingly started to seek us out. 3) From February-May 2017, we became one of five Alzheimer Society chapters selected to participate in MAREP s research on the development, implementation, and accomplishments of the Blue Umbrella Project. By contributing our results and feedback, our Northern community has a voice in further shaping what is possible for Blue Umbrella as it expands to other communities in Ontario.
Slide 11 Presentation was great; Videos shared personal experiences. - Blind River volunteer fire fighter It was very informative. We all had our chance to discuss our personal experiences. - Blind River Dental hygenist It made me realize that there is more to dementia than just memory loss. - Home Hardware staff member Great examples on how to initiate communication. - Cameco employee 11 Feedback from some of the Blind River sessions.
Slide 12 Challenges 1. Recruiting persons with dementia to assist with program delivery; 2. Some businesses are still resistant to participating STIGMA! 1) Certainly representing the first-hand perspective in our program through local volunteers living with the experience was our biggest challenge, despite efforts to recruit through our first link family support group or the family clinic. This challenge could be attributed to: Strong sense of personal privacy among families caring for individuals with dementia Pervasive stigma/fear We observed strong apprehension from town residents to seek information and resources. As a result, persons with dementia in the community are getting diagnosed very late in the progress of their disease. As such, they were not an appropriate fit for the physical demands of the walkabout or education session. 2) Some businesses were resistant to participation in the Project likely due to a lack of understanding of what dementia is and of how they (as a community service provider) could play a role in supporting them. Both of these challenges reflected the complexities of stigma.
Slide 13 Priorities & possibilities 1. Train more new businesses; 2. Follow-up on businesses trained; In the last months of the Blind River pilot, we identified three areas of focus: 1) Continuing to train businesses, prioritizing restaurants, banks, tourist spots (inns, golf course); 2) Following up with businesses trained using a self-assessment tool to determine if more training is required, if deeper conversations need to be had, or if new staff to be trained.
Slide 14 Priorities & possibilities 3. Increase public education Address fear and stigma Promote earlier Diagnosis and Intervention Build awareness of Alzheimer Society as a community resource 3) Increasing public information with an emphasis on breaking down fear that may prevent early diagnosis and intervention scaffolding the business education and building on the brand recognition we generated with our presence in the community.
Slide 15 How can BU increase public education? Outreach to neighbouring communities (MFN, Mamaweswen, Elliot Lake, Sault) Presence on the Senior-friendly Committee (NSHN hospital) Partnerships with local businesses (BR Public Library, churches) Family Caregiver Support meetings Blue Umbrella built capacity for more public education by: Reaching out to neighbouring communities (Mississauga First Nation, N'Mninoeyaa Aboriginal Health Access Centre; this year, Sault Ste. Marie & Elliot Lake) Having a presence/being a voice on the Senior-friendly committee at the hospital Partnering with local businesses/services: e.g. library, churches Continuing to develop the family caregiver support group meetings as a local resource.
Slide 16 At the end of the pilot, the town council used the official town website to acknowledge their participation in the pilot and affirm their ongoing commitment to being a dementia friendly community.
Thank you!!