fbpx
Connect with us

Local

New initiatives announced to make La Crosse dementia-friendly

Published

on

New initiatives to make La Crosse a dementia-friendly community were announced at the Health Science Center Wednesday.

About 2,300 people in La Crosse County are living with Alzheimer’s disease or other related dementia.

That number is expected to increase almost 480 percent by 2030, according to the La Crosse County Aging and Disability Resource Center. The highest risk factor for a dementia diagnosis is age.

It’s a big part of the increased efforts to make La Crosse a dementia-friendly community. A newly formed La Crosse Dementia Coalition was announced on Wednesday.

The coalition was formed in May to create awareness and provide resources.

“Individuals are living longer, and they want to remain independent and live in their homes,” Kelsey Flock, dementia care specialist with the La Crosse County ADRC, said. “We as a community need to support that and be aware that people are going to have dementia. How do we best support them when they navigate outside their homes?”

Flock added that the consortium is working to raise awareness, transform attitudes about dementia, and provide support for people living with dementia and their caregivers.

One key message from the news conference is that those living with dementia, their family and caregivers should have a plan.

Carla Lundeen is the senior manager of quality innovation with Inclusa, a managed care organization. Lundeen said she and fellow experts formed a future planning checklist to help family and friends be more proactive to personalize care and make sure one’s wishes are implemented.

“We needed a better way to help support them to care for those individuals living with dementia,” Lundeen said. “To meet this need, we assembled a group of volunteers of over 30 dementia care experts and professionals from over 20 community organizations to develop a plan.”

The plan also makes sure family or friends know where to find important documents or how to manage the household of someone living with dementia if necessary.

Caring for someone with dementia can be overwhelming which is why the creation of the plan lead to the development of a website with resources. The coalition worked with the La Crosse Area Transitions and Care Team to develop the dementia-care website.

“Over two years ago, the La Crosse Transitions and Care Team identified that while we have some excellent residential and other paid, professional provider types in our area who are caring for our family members, our friends, our neighbors living with dementia,” Lundeen said. “We also saw that we needed a better way to help support them.”

The website is indented to be a continuously updated resource with information from reputable sources.

Moving forward, the coalition hoped the community will begin to normalize the discussion of dementia.

The La Crosse Dementia Coalition is collaborating with the ADRC and to local hospitals for three dementia live simulations. They will be held at Gunderson Health System Nov. 15 and Jan. 20. Mayo will host a live simulation on March 23.

Kaitlyn Riley’s passion for communications started on her family’s dairy farm in Gays Mills, Wis. Wanting to share agriculture’s story, she studied strategic communications and broadcast journalism at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In college, she held officer positions with the Association of Women in Agriculture and Badger Dairy Club while volunteering as a news reporter for the college radio station. She also founded the university’s first agricultural radio talk show, AgChat. In her professional career, Kaitlyn has worked in radio, print and television news doing everything from covering local events to interviewing presidential candidates, and putting back on her barn boots to chat with farmers in the field. Today, Kaitlyn can be seen covering local stories that matter to you in the La Crosse area.

Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *