Dementia awareness training reaches Greater Sudbury

A new program being offered by the Alzheimer society in Sudbury, Ont. aims to help staff at businesses in the community better understand and recognize the symptoms of the disease.

Jose Prseault, a financial planner at Desjardins in Sudbury, recently learned this type of troubleshooting that's very different from what she usually does at work. Desjardinswas the first business in Sudbury to go through the new workshop.

"I found it startling just how many people will be affected by dementia, so this is definitely something we're going to have to deal with more and more," Prseault said.

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The workshop is calledthe Living Well with Dementia Blue Umbrella Program. It's a 30-minute workshop for businesses that explains the degenerative disease,and howemployees can comfort those showing symptoms.

"Often there's the stigma that's attached with the disease which is something we're trying to break down," said Jessica Bertuzzi-Gallo, a spokesperson forthe Alzheimer's Society Sudbury-Manitoulin North Bay & Districts.

"A lot of people don't know how to interact with someone with dementia," she continued.

"That makes the person with dementia uncomfortable, ashamed, embarrassed. We're doing this to make people aware of how to interact with them and how to make them feel included in going out to the community."

Aging population makes training an asset

Bertuzzi-Gallo trains other staff members to provide the Blue Umbrella programto any businesses that wantit.

Practical tips are a big part of the presentation. For instance, at a bank, if someone with dementia comes in wanting to take out money, shesuggests counting the cash out and leaving it on the counter.That way, it's less likely the client willget confused with the process.

"The advantage for businesses is customer service," Bertuzzi-Gallo said.

"We have an aging population in Sudbury, so you have a better chance of those people going to your store, purchasing from you and giving you business if you provide them with the appropriate service."

Society hopes for January sign-ups

Bertuzzi-Gallo said she hopes more businesses sign up for the training in January. Employees would get the chance, not only to help more people, but to be introduced to a disease that might affect them one day.

"Someone with Alzheimer's disease could be a man in line with his son or a young woman," she said. "It's not just that senior in long-term care in a wheelchair it could be anyone."

According to the Alzheimer's society, 4,321 people live with dementia in Greater Sudbury.

The Blue Umbrella Program launched in North Bay this past fall. Bertuzzi-Gallosaid the training should reachManitoulinin early 2017.