1. Twitter dfamerica.org @dfamerica_
Families and communities in every city, town, and rural area in the U.S. are feeling the impact of dementia. Over five million Americans--one in eight people age 65 and older and one in three age 85 and older--is living with dementia and they are supported by 15.5 million family members and friends.
The Dementia Friendly America initiative is a multi-sector, national collaborative of over 35 leading organizations that are catalyzing a movement and set of best practices to foster “dementia friendly” communities across the United States to improve opportunities and outcomes for a growing number of people with dementia, their families and care partners.
Twitter
@dfamerica_
dfamerica.org

2. Dementia Friendly Community Goals
Desired Outcomes
Community and system capacity that enhances quality of life and positive outcomes for people living with dementia and their care partners
Indicators
Increased quality of life
Increased community awareness of dementia
Increased dementia friendly business and financial practices
Increased access to community life and meaningful engagement through dementia friendly services and supports
Increased rates of detection/diagnosis
Increased rates of advance planning
Reduced fraud and abuse
Despite there being an absence of a cure for dementia, there is much that can be done at a community level to make a difference.
The Dementia Friendly America initiative aims to build community and system capacity in ways that enhance the quality of life for people living with dementia and their loved ones. There are a number of indicators that support this aim, such as increased awareness of dementia, more access to community life for those with dementia, and increased rates of detection.

3. What is a Dementia Friendly Community?
A dementia friendly community works to foster dementia friendliness in all sectors of community.
Faith leaders, pharmacists, retail staff, doctors, first responders and a host of others in community can all help to make a difference for those living with dementia. By fostering sector-specific practices that are informed, safe, and respectful, communities can work toward being more supportive and accommodating to those with cognitive impairment and their family and care partners.
Dementia friendly communities are also age-friendly. Dementia friendly efforts compliment rather than duplicate or compete with age-friendly efforts. DFA can provide information on how the two relate and can be aligned.
All sectors are informed, safe and respectful (age vs. dementia friendly)

4. Sector-Specific Dementia Friendly Practices
Businesses
Community-based supports
Faith communities
Health care community
Legal and financial services
Local government
Residential settings
The Dementia Friendly America initiative provides a set of resources that outlines actions that can be taken in each sector of community. Our community will use the initiative’s sector guides to help us work toward dementia friendliness. All of these resources can be found on the initiative’s website, dfamerica.org. The sector guides provide information on why it is important to be dementia friendly in each sector, steps that each sector can take and practices they can adopt to work to become dementia friendly.

5. Community Toolkit Phases
Convene key community leaders and members to understand dementia and its implications for your community. Then, form an Action Team.
Engage key leaders to assess current strengths and gaps in your community using a comprehensive engagement tool.
Analyze your community needs and determine the issues stakeholders are motivated to act on; then set community goals.
ACT together to establish implementation plans for your goals and identify ways to measure progress.
In addition to the content geared to all sectors of community (as mentioned on the previous slide), the initiative provides a toolkit that guides the process and action at the ground level. Our community will use this 4-step toolkit, which guides the community process with enough structure to help us come together and create a shared agenda, but it’s flexible enough in that it allows us to define our own goals and approach the work in a way that’s most suitable for our unique community.
(There is no obligation to use the toolkit – it’s simply available to those who find value in it)

6. Pre-Convening and Convening
Community Development Steps
Identify Champion and Coordinator
Readiness and Commitment Check
Convene Cross-Sector Action Team
Foster Contributions and Agreements Across Partners
The following outlines the pre-convening and convening phases of our community development process.
The first step is to identify both a champion and a community coordinator. (Please feel free to share who will serve in the roles if they have been determined).
A key step to take is to determine readiness and commitment within our community. Through the 4-phase toolkit, we will work to understand where our community has energy and sees opportunity for supporting people with dementia and their family and care partners.
Once we have an understanding of community readiness and commitment, we will convene a cross-sector action team to set a shared agenda and work plan.
Finally, we will foster any necessary contributions and agreements that will enable our community to move forward in fostering our dementia friendly action plan.

7. Champion Role Champion Convene Guide Planning
Coordinate or Secure Coordination Function
Serve as Hub for Communication
Help Sustain Momentum
The Champion role is intended to support the community in its dementia friendly efforts in a number of ways. (Please feel free to share who will serve in the roles if they have been determined). These include
convening the community partners and leaders,
guiding the planning phase of the work,
coordinating the effort and/or securing a coordination function,
serving as the main disseminator of information about our community efforts, and
helping to sustain momentum through playing a leadership role throughout the process.

8. Readiness Check Questions
Does your community have an influencer/champion who is willing to endorse and kick off an action team?
Has your community shown an interest in dementia or other community health initiatives in the past?
Does your community have an existing coalition or an organization that might serve as a sponsor or convener for building an action team?
Do you anticipate that your team would be willing to commit to a 18 month-2 year community effort?
Would your action team be prepared to collect information regarding progress on established goals?
On slide 6, we discussed the need to assess community readiness before setting a work plan. This question set will allow us to get clear on where we are ready and where we might have gaps to fill before pursuing our shared work together.

9. Establishing Communities
Community Commitment
Secure Champion Organization and Coordination
Assure Connections b/n Health System, Community, and Public Sector Partners
Foster Adoption of Dementia Friendly Practices and Change Goals
Track Progress
Implement Community Tool Kit Process if Appropriate
In this work, our community is making a commitment to work toward dementia friendliness. In the process, we are committing to the following to realize this aspiration:
Securing a champion organization and a coordination function
Assuring connections across sectors, with a specific focus on the health system, the public sector, and at least one other sector of community (e.g. faith, business, banking, legal services, etc.)
Fostering a work plan that will embed dementia friendly practices in a number of community sectors
Tracking progress against our plan
Implementing the 4-phase community toolkit process (if appropriate)

10. Convene Phase: The Action Team
In the initial phase of the toolkit process, our community will convene the Action Team, which will consist of a host of individuals from a variety of sectors. Although we will strive to engage all sectors of community, our work can move forward if we have (at a minimum) engagement from the health system, the public sector, and at least one other sector of community (e.g. faith, business, banking, legal services, etc.)
A critical factor for Action Team formation is the participation and engagement of people living with dementia and their families and care partners.

11. Engage Phase: Actions Needed
Sectors:
Adult day
Caregiver support providers
Employers/businesses
Health providers
Legal and financial planners
Local government
Residential settings
Social service agencies
Transportation
Faith communities
Define your community
Determine who to survey and who will survey
Target sectors
Include diverse populations
The next step in our effort to becoming dementia capable is to assess our community. This will help us identify current resources, needs and opportunities in the community.
First we must define our community. (Is it a city, group of neighborhoods or community of interest?)
We will also need to identify who to survey and who on our team will do the surveying.
Next, we will review the sector-based surveys in the toolkit from Phase 2, Step 1. (the sectors are listed on the right side of the slide; point out sector(s) that may not exist in a community)
(Determine how much of the assessment is appropriate for your community and manageable for your team. We encourage communities to do the full assessment, but doing a part is acceptable when circumstances warrant.)

12. Analyze Phase: Planning for Action
Look for High Priority, Low Activity areas of need
In the Analyze Phase, we will foster a plan for action by assessing areas of need that are high priority and low activity. This will enable us make the greatest impact given our priorities and capacity to create positive change.

13. Act Phase: Working Together
Dementia Friends awareness and education program
Business, clinical, government, law enforcement, youth, first responder and faith trainings
New caregiver supports, respite and trainings
New meaningful engagement opportunities for persons living with dementia (e.g. arts)
In the final phase of the toolkit process, we will work together to foster our shared work plan.
We will:
increase awareness and facilitate educational programs,
provide trainings to various sectors of community,
explore how to better support care partners through respite options and trainings
Create meaningful community engagement opportunities for people living with dementia

14. Early Results Of Communities In Action
32 Action Communities
Awareness and education: Dementia Friends
Caregiver supports
New, meaningful community engagement opportunities (arts, music)
Cross-Sector Engagement and Training: business, government, law enforcement, youth, first responder and faith
Health system adoption of optimal dementia care practices
The Dementia Friendly America initiative is based on Minnesota’s ACT on Alzheimer's, a successful statewide, volunteer-driven collaboration of medical, academic, community, government, business and nonprofit stakeholders from across the state. Developmental evaluation of these communities has shown an increase in services and resources that are supportive of people living with dementia, an increased awareness of dementia and effective responses from those living in communities undertaking this effort, and a greater sense of confidence for those living with dementia and/or their care partners.
Since 2011, 34 communities have come together to prepare for the personal, social, and budget impacts of dementia by addressing community needs and increasing support for people impacted by dementia.

15. DFA Network Communities Committing/Preparing
Early Adopters
Committing/Preparing
Inquiring
Minnesota
Boston
Montgomery County
Prince Georges County, MD
West Virginia
Santa Clara County, CA
Denver, CO
At the White House Conference on Aging in July, the DFA initiative announced its first 8 pilot communities which are highlighted on this map in light blue.
They span the country coast-to-coast, and include cities (Tempe, Denver, Boston and Seattle), counties (Montgomery County, AL, Santa Clara County, CA and Prince Georges County, and Montgomery County, MD), and entire states (Minnesota, West Virginia, Texas, Nebraska, Florida)
Those states highlighted in purple include communities that have voiced interest in fostering dementia friendliness and hope to be a part of the DFA movement once all of the resources are fully developed.
In 2016, the initiative plans to assist as many of those interested communities as possible.
Tempe, AZ

16. Community Capability: Care Partner Support and Family Health
Desired Impact: Is There a Finish Line?
Community Capability:
Adoption of dementia friendly practices within and across all community sectors (e.g., faith, business, government, health care)
Person with Dementia—Well-Being
Care Partner Efficacy
Care Partner Support and Family Health
System Capability:
Adoption of optimal dementia care and supports in health, long term care and community services
The work to foster dementia friendliness is ongoing. There is work to be done within the community and within the health and long-term care system.
From a community perspective, capability is developed through the adoption of dementia friendly practices within and across all sectors of community.
From a system perspective, we hope to see adoption of optimal dementia care and supports.
If we achieve change in both community and system capability, we hope to see increased quality of life and well-being for those with dementia, increased efficacy of care partners, and an increase in support for family and care partners, including enhanced health.

17. Discussion Questions
What have you heard about dementia friendly communities that most resonates with you?
What seems ripe for action in your specific community?
What big questions or concerns do you have?
(Ask the following questions to gauge where your community members are in understanding what this work is and how it will be pursued)

18. Discussion Questions
Looking at readiness criteria, does our community feel ready?
Where do we feel we are equipped to move forward?
What do we need most to move forward?
What are we most worried and excited about?
(Ask the following questions to gauge where your community members are in understanding what this work is and how it will be pursued)

19. Next Steps Planning