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Date: 3/21/2023
SOUTH HADLEY — In efforts to raise awareness of the community’s Age and Dementia Friendly label, the Town of South Hadley is hosting an Age and Dementia Friendly event on April 4 from 3:30-6 p.m. at the South Hadley Senior Center.
The goal of the event is to raise public awareness of the work that is being done to make South Hadley an Age and Dementia Friendly community. The initiative is directly linked to the town’s master plan.
“This kick-off forum will give the South Hadley Age and Dementia Friendly Committee members the opportunity to highlight current and future initiatives that offer opportunities to highlight current and future initiatives that offer opportunities to best meet the needs of older adults and peolpe with dementia,” Executive Director of the South Hadley Council on Aging Leslie Hennessey told Reminder Publishing.
Selectboard member and Council on Aging Board of Director Carol Constant said the town’s efforts to become an age and dementia friendly community comes to raise awareness of the disease. Constant volunteers on the age and dementia friendly initiatives and chairs a subcommittee for dementia friendly for the town.
Constant described to Reminder Publishing that not everyone who grows old will have a form of dementia but there are people living in the community now and in the future who will be. These people will be neighbors or friends amongst the community and being a dementia friendly community means the community is informed, understanding and supportive to those living with dementia and their caregivers.
“The whole initiative is embedded in the work we’re already doing in town with the master plan,” Constant said. “We were able to glean from that the things that people in the community said they wanted South Hadley to do so it sort of all fit in to the age and dementia friendly initiative.”
Constant added the event will allow for the public to become more aware of the ongoing work and be in the loop of the town’s efforts.
Hennessey added the South Hadley Age and Dementia Friendly Committee was appointed by the Selectboard in January 2022. The committee seeks to raise awareness about the importance of providing a community that supports aging in every way.
The event starts with an Age and Dementia Friendly Panel from 3:30-4:30 p.m. Moderating the panel will be Town Administrator Lisa Wong as discussions with the panel will provide an overview of the town-wide initiative with linkages to the South Hadley Master Plan, town department and statewide initiatives.
Panelists for the opening portion of the event will include Police Chief Jen Gunderson, Planning Director Anne Capra, Library Director Joe Rodio, Fire District 1 Captain Jay Houle, a Fire District 2 Representative, Chair of the Commission on Disabilities Tay Silveira, the South Hadley Health Department and Program Director for Dementia Friendly Massachusetts Patty Sullivan.
“Having Lisa Wong, the Town Administrator moderate the event with a lot of the town department heads adds gravitas to how important this project is. 101 what is Age and Dementia Friendly and what are we doing in South Hadley to achieve that,” Constant said. “It’s always going to be striving, we’re always going to be working to improve…it’s something we will always be doing, and the town plays an important role in it.”
From 4:30-5:30 p.m. will be a Dementia Friendly Awareness Program led by Constant herself (a certified Dementia practitioner), Rachel Tierney RN, PhD, and Dave and Rose Helman. This portion of the event will show differences between normal age-related memory loss and dementia as well as how South Hadley is working to be a dementia friendly community. It will also showcase more information on dementia and how the disease can work.
The Age and Dementia Friendly movement strives to create communities that are aware and provide support. This type of support comes in forms such as being accessible, equitable and culturally inclusive, offering public areas, parks, sidewalks and buildings that are accessible, providing sufficient, affordable housing available in areas that are safe and close to services, having a wide variety of events and activities that appeal to residents, offering individual and group transportation options, and having emergency planning that takes into account the vulnerabilities and capacities of older adults and all residents. These are things based from the Master Plan that have been able to be related to making the community more age and dementia friendly.
Mental Health initiatives will be discussed from 5:30-6 p.m. where South Hadley Police Officer Emily Tebo will talk about a new program, EMHOT, that is a partnership between several area Senior Centers and WestMass Eldercare to offer mental health services for older adults who struggle with mental health and wellness. Karen Buscemi PMH-NP and Bethany Tabb MSW, LCSW, will be joining the discussion.
The new initiatives by the South Hadley Police and a partnership between the Council on Aging and WestMass ElderCare will look to provide services to those community members who struggle with mental health and wellness.
Closing out the night is a raffle and soup inside Woodlawn Café for individuals who attended all sessions. This is sponsored by the Friends of South Hadley Seniors. If interested in registering for the forum, individuals can call Sandy Farnsworth at the Senior Center at 538-5030 ext. 3.
Constant hopes those who attend can learn more about see the efforts being made for the town and how it will a positive addition to the town’s focus, as well as dementia itself.
“Our hope is to raise awareness so that people are thinking about it. Also knowing that their town is involved in this puts them in a new position of understanding,” Constant said. “It’s another form of ways we can be community inclusive as well. This is a really exciting initiative, and my hope is the public not only gets enthusiastic about it but gets behind it.”