Alzheimer's breakfast set for Cape Breton
Business owners asked to help create a dementia-friendly environment
The Alzheimer's Society of Nova Scotia is setting its sights on a creating dementia-friendly community.
That will be the focus of the Alzheimer's Research Breakfast to be held in Membertou in January.
Business people are being encouraged to attend in the hope they will educate their staff to be more understanding toward customers with dementia.
The education and outreach co-ordinator for the Alzheimer's Society in Cape Breton, Catherine Shepherd, said businesses can go a long way in helping those suffering with dementia.
"They can have a quality-filled life," she said. "They can go to supper without feeling the stigma, if it takes them a bit longer. They can go to the grocery store and not have to worry if they need a little bit of extra help. They are still supported."
Deanna Harvey-Green works with the Victorian Order of Nurses as a community support worker. She said she saw the stigma attached to dementia while caring for her own mother.
"Everybody tends to shy away and some people lose friends and relatives because they don't know how to talk to someone who has Alzheimer's," she said. "But I didn't want to treat her any different. We adjusted some things, but she was still my Mom."
Harvey-Green will speak at the breakfast event.
She will be joined by dementia and Alzheimer's care expert Teepa Snow, along with local business owner Chris Robertson.