WESTLOCK – A new FCSS initiative is helping to support people living at home with dementia.
The Community-Based Innovations for Dementia Care (CIDC) project in Westlock, which was originally coordinated via the Aspen Primary Care Network in 2020 but was sidelined by the pandemic, is now moving forward under the Westlock and District Family and Community Support Services’ (FCSS) project ‘Building Compassionate Communities’.
The project is primarily aimed at working with people living with dementia and their caregivers in the community, instead of focusing on those in lodges and long-term care.
“We came up with a re-proposal for the grant — our Building Compassionate Communities’ project at the end of 2021. Our project has been running since January and will run until December of this year,” said FCSS community youth coordinator Emma Langevin. “We feel like that’s a group that may get (overlooked) a little bit, is people still living in their homes. Most of our project is focused on that but we also do community education sessions and are hoping to start those in the fall.”
FCSS has introduced two new initiatives this summer, under the ‘Building Compassionate Communities’ project, including a new sensory kit, that was launched in July and an iPad lending library that launched Aug.15.
“The sensory kit is full of different sensory items that provide some brain stimulation that’s helpful for people living with dementia,” said Langevin. “We also included resources and a bit of information as to why these kits are helpful in the sensory kits themselves.”
The idea behind the kits came from a project in the U.K. that used sensory items to help people living with dementia in various situations such as accessing a hospital or riding in an ambulance, both which “can be an over stimulating and confusing experience” for people with dementia, said Langevin.
Two hundred and fifty sensory kits are now available at the FCSS office, located in the Westlock Heritage Building and do not have to be returned. The kits include such items as a stress ball, tangle puzzles, infinity cubes and a twiddle muff — things that can help calm a person with dementia in a stressful situation.
“We’ve had the community really pull together to knit these (twiddle muffs) for us …it’s really been a community effort,” said Langevin.
Another initiative is the iPad lending library, as 18 iPads are now available for caregivers or people living with dementia, to borrow free of charge, for a three-week period.
“We’ve loaded the iPads up with a bunch of apps and games that are supposed to provide some brain stimulation and we’ve also uploaded them with a whole library …resources that educate people on dementia such as what to expect as things progress and where you can go for help,” explained Langevin. “We’ve really tried to make these iPads a hub for people looking for information.”
