Dementia-friendly city

About Linn

Linn’s background is as a nurse. However, before even getting on studying to be a nurse she started working at an elderly home for people suffering from dementia.

“So, I kind of lost my heart to this group before I even started the education. I thought it was so interesting that you always had to put yourself at stake in the meeting with the person with dementia and - at the same time - be curious about the individual and that “one size doesn′t fit all”

She has been working in the last few years with dementia in the early stages and early onset dementia, as well as with new innovative methods to take care of the target group. At the moment Linn works as a dementia-friendly city consultant, where they try to focus on developing dementia-friendly communities.

But what does a?Dementia-friendly city?means? That and even more you can read in this interview!

When it comes to a dementia-friendly city Linn says:?“We work with trying to educate people and every citizen in Aarhus about dementia. What is dementia? And how does dementia affect you when you have dementia? It's not only the memory that's affected. It's a lot of different aspects. So, we try to educate the citizens. We also do partnerships and collaborations with, for example, cultural institutions, libraries, stores, or everywhere where people suffering from dementia live their life - and that is everywhere. Because people suffering from dementia are just like you and me. They don't live their lives only closed in the house.?We want them to have an active life where they can still go to the theater, the cinemas, restaurants, and anywhere. So, we make collaborations and partnerships where we make a special intervention with a store or cultural institutions. We educate in a specific way, and we look at the surroundings. Can we do something about wayfinding? How can we help the people suffering from dementia?”?The goal is to create together a city where those affected can live a safe and dignified life - with and despite dementia.?

Moreover, Linn has mentioned different collaborations with other parts of the municipality e.g.: the municipality part that focuses on parks, roads, and where to put benches.?“We work with them as well to make them aware of when we do a new project, we should think of people suffering from dementia that they are able to use this for example park and what has to be done.”?This also means that Linn works in the municipality as well as outside of the municipality.

Linn says that it's really important to listen to people suffering from dementia and then ask them what we can do as a city or as a community, to make them feel safe, and to make them able to live an active life. “I wish people knew more about dementia?because?there's a level of misunderstandings about dementia. There's a level of prejudice about dementia, which makes the group stigmatized.?Afterward, they don't go out because it may be embarrassing when they don't meet the social standards.” And this is of course wrong, these people need to have a social and active life, and therefore we as a society should be more interested in how to make everyday life easier and more comfortable for people who suffer from dementia. When talking about the misunderstanding we have touched upon very common misinformation and that - it is normal or even expected to have dementia when you’re getting old-. That is of course wrong. Moreover, Linn says:?“I would like to say that there's a misunderstanding that people suffering from dementia become a shell of themselves. They don't have any value, they can't make any decisions so they can participate in society, in debates society, and so on and so on. And I think that's the biggest misunderstanding that is how we look at the people suffering from dementia.”?We should not look at them as people with no meaning or no value to society because that is totally wrong. It is important that we look at the people suffering from dementia, as equals, and try to understand and see things from their perspective. These people are living with the disease; therefore, we need to learn and listen to them because they know how it feels and what is it like to live with dementia.

“That is such a tragedy because every person has value in society and has value as a human being. And we tend to look at people suffering from dementia from that point of view. I think that we need to insist on looking at people suffering from dementia as the good human beings they are. Maybe that has differed from who, they were 20 years ago but I'm not the same as I was 20 years ago either and that is okay.”?

Another story Linn mentioned was related to traveling.?“We also see that for example in buses, or we heard that a lot with people traveling by bus or public transportation. In Denmark, we have “rejsekort” (traveling card), and every time you need to check in when you go on the bus and check out when you are getting off the bus. Now imagine, when you get on a bus, there are a lot of thoughts going through your mind for you and me, but also when you suffer from dementia for instance: is this the right bus? What number is this bus? How do I know how to get off the bus at the right station and so on… So, because the situation is so stressful, then it's hard to remember to check in. On the other hand, when you are getting off the bus, the situation is even more stressful. Consequently, they can easily forget to check out. Therefore, we did a partnership where we contacted the local bus company and explained that these people have stopped using their buses because they experienced these situations and even got into situations when they got fined and the stress level got even worse for them as they got exposed. However, we need to understand that they do not try to cheat, and they do not have bad intentions. Therefore, we made a partnership with this company as they of course understood they shouldn't be fined because it was not their intention. If it's something about their illness, then we would like to help them instead.”?The solution of this partnership was focused on drivers. What drivers can do to make situations like this less stressful? Linn explained that the first step was to educate the bus drivers about what is dementia and what is challenging for these people when traveling with the bus. Also, the bus company made a small pin that you can get when you have dementia, and then you won't get fined. If a person wears this small pin on the bus, then the bus driver is aware that there is a person who suffers from dementia on the board.

Moreover, Linn has introduced?The Dementia corner, Demenshj?rnet. This is also a part of?Aarhus Municipality. It is a place where people with dementia in the early stages can come and be a part of a training course and this can be physical as well as cognitive training. The training can help to delay the development of the disease and develop e.g. coping strategies for living with dementia.

Everyone is welcome to come in and get information about all aspects of life with dementia no matter if you are directly or indirectly influenced by the disease. It's also a place where you can get guidance in case you're curious about dementia, you can come and get some knowledge. Then you can go there and say what can I do for the person?

If you are interested to read more about dementia corner do not hesitate to visit this?link.

Furthermore,?volunteer dementia instructors?offer presentations regarding dementia - to shops, associations, and groups with an interest in dementia.

In the end, the last suggestion from Linn is patience, understanding, and time when communicating with people who suffer from dementia.?“Be open with your body language, look at the person, make a connection and then ask simple questions and one question at a time and wait for the answer.”?Sometimes people suffering from dementia need those extra 10 seconds to understand what is being said and to create an answer.

We would like to say thank you to Linn for her time to give us an interview and hard work for the community.

If you are interested to read more about the dementia-friendly city, then do not hesitate to click on the?link.