Trail Blazing a Compassionate Dementia-Inclusive Community Path Forward

The Greater Trail Hospice Society, Trail Family and Individual Resource Society, and the Columbia Senior’s Wellness Society have partnered to create An Evening to Remember, an event hosted by Beaver Valley Recreation. Through a series of fun and educational activities, community members will have the opportunity to learn more about living with dementia and to envision how to make their community a more compassionate, dementia-inclusive place.

Over the course of the evening, participants will also move through a series of five interactive stations that touch upon memory, memory loss, and compassion. The Memory Booth, for example, displays found and familiar objects curated by the Beaver Valley and Pend Oreille Historical Society. Objects are linked to our personal and collective narratives, and participants will be encouraged to interact with these objects, share some of those stories, and reminisce. Another station, the “Dementia Experience”, features a simulation tool that includes a range of scenarios reflecting the lived experience of dementia to help participants gain experiential insight into the condition. Yet another station asks guests to contribute to the co-creation of a Compassion Quilt. They’ll write words or draw images on a square of fabric to illustrate what the term “compassionate community” means to them. Their contributions will then later be sewn into an eye-catching quilt to be displayed in businesses around the region.

This engaging and meaningful event, hosted by local organizations, is part of a broader, pan-national awareness-raising initiative called the Compassionate Dementia-Inclusive Community (CDIC) Project led by partners at UBC Okanagan and supported by a contribution from Health Canada.

The aim of the CDIC to build compassionate, dementia inclusive communities in a world where an increasingly large portion of the population is facing the challenges of dementia, declining health, and the inevitable process of dying. In its six project sites spread out from BC all the way to Newfoundland, CDIC project leaders are creating environments that recognize the struggles and unique needs of individuals with declining health and persons who care for them.

The goal in each of these communities is to create an environment where community members are well-informed about the realities of these experiences, equipped to engage in meaningful conversations, and motivated to advocate for compassionate care and structural supports—such as accessible healthcare, supportive policy changes, and culturally sensitive services.

The project has prioritized events and interventions that are creative, fun, and memorable: experiences participants will walk away from with increased knowledge as well as a commitment to act, contributing in some way to supporting persons living with dementia.

“Once you have a diagnosis, the question becomes, how do you accept this as your new normal, and lead your life knowing you don’t get to choose not to have it. How do you carry it well through your life, experience joy, embrace slowing down and cherishing the moment?”

For more information on the CDIC project please contact: [email protected]