Background: By 2050, 13.8 million Americans over 65 will be living with dementia, and most will live in the community. To extend each person's ability to remain living in their homes, we must educate community members across all sectors, and professionals across the continuum about dementia.
Methods: Dementia Friends (DF) is an international curriculum designed to increase awareness of dementia and create dementia inclusive communities. Transformation of communities can only occur through educational efforts delivered to specific community sectors. Standard DF educational content has been customized to increase dementia awareness for interprofessional and cross sector learners. This includes acute care (e.g., hospital staff and volunteers), community-based (e.g., Area Agency on Aging, Habitat for Humanity, RSVP, Veterans), department of correction, faith communities, first responders, families and caregivers. We partnered with our county health department and the local County Board of Developmental Disabilities (DD) to systematically incorporate DF for Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities training to the DD staff and their provider network. Additionally, we partnered with Asia Services in Action, Inc. to translate DF into Simplified Chinese and Nepali languages, and train ASIA, Inc. staff to deliver these programs. We also undertook a Dementia Inclusive Community initiative in an effort to establish a recognized Dementia Friendly community in northeast Ohio.
Results: We used the DF curriculum to educate participants across many sectors within that community. Data were collected voluntarily through online surveys using the Brief Tool for Dementia-Friendly Education and Training Sessions. Results from our Dementia Inclusive Community initiative (n=96) indicate participants felt more confident interacting with people living with dementia (p<.001) and better able to respond to people living with dementia with understanding ( p=.005) at post-session compared to pre-session.
Conclusions: Dementia Inclusive Communities require awareness across multiple sectors and we describe here how to, with minimal adaptations, successfully and meaningfully deliver content to meet the needs of specific community sectors. .
In support of improving patient care, this activity is planned and implemented by The National Center for Interprofessional Practice and Education Office of Interprofessional Continuing Professional Development (OICPD). The OICPD is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), and the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) to provide continuing education for the healthcare team.
The National Center OICPD is approved by the Board of Certification, Inc. to provide continuing education to Athletic Trainers (ATs). This program is eligible for Category A hours/CEUs. ATs should claim only those hours actually spent in the educational program.
This activity was planned by and for the healthcare team, and learners will receive Interprofessional Continuing Education (IPCE) credit for learning and change.
Physicians: The National Center for Interprofessional Practice and Education designates this live activity for AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™. Physicians should only claim credit commensurate with their participation.
Physician Assistants: The American Academy of Physician Assistants (AAPA) accepts credit from organizations accredited by the ACCME.
Nurses: Participants will be awarded contact hours of credit for attendance at this workshop.
Nurse Practitioners: The American Academy of Nurse Practitioners Certification Program (AANPCP) accepts credit from organizations accredited by the ACCME and ANCC.
Pharmacists and Pharmacy Technicians: This activity is approved for contact hours.
Athletic Trainers: This program is eligible for Category A hours/CEUs. ATs should claim only those hours actually spent in the educational program.
Social Workers: As a Jointly Accredited Organization, the National Center is approved to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Organizations, not individual courses, are approved under this program. State and provincial regulatory boards have the final authority to determine whether an individual course may be accepted for continuing education credit. The National Center maintains responsibility for this course. Social workers completing this course receive continuing education credits.
IPCE: This activity was planned by and for the healthcare team, and learners will receive Interprofessional Continuing Education (IPCE) credits for learning and change.
