Feisty senior Myrna Norman kicked off Maple Ridge’s Alzheimer’s Walk on Saturday morning in Memorial Peace Park, then she left for Ottawa for a national conference on dementia.
Far from showing any feeling of being stigmatized, Norman loudly announced she has dementia, and had the crowd laughing as she announced she had “a small speech,” and then unreeled about a dozen linked pages of notes.
“I am a person with dementia, I’ve got two kinds that have been diagnosed for nine years,” she said. “And the reason I’m out here is to say you can live well with dementia.
“Don’t stay in your house, get out and enjoy life, and do things to help the cause.”
Norman explained that she will go to Ottawa with a list of goals to help for people living with dementia.
In December 2017 the government announced it will hold a conference in Ottawa from May 14-15 to inform a national dementia strategy. the conference is expected to bring together stakeholders from across the country, including public health representatives from provincial and territorial governments, researchers, health care professionals and other care providers, people living with dementia, family caregivers, and dementia advocacy groups.
Locally there is also work being done.
Heather Treleaven of the Senior’s Network explained the Alzheimer’s walks take place across B.C. in early May. She said Haney’s Make Memories Matter Walk on Saturday was raising funds for the Alzheimer Society of B.C., while kicking off a local initiative.
“This is our first year doing it in Maple Ridge, and it’s the launch of our Dementia Friendly Communities Initiative, which is funded by the City of Maple Ridge, to make Maple Ridge more compassionate and help educate folks to reduce the stigma of people living with dementia,” said Treleaven.
She said the new initiative will be providing education to city staff, outside workers and businesses about how to assess people who appear to be “struggling” or are confused. There will also be awareness and promotion, and may be changes to city signage and facilities to make things easier for people who are more easily confused.
Maple Ridge-Mission MLA Bob D’Eith and Pitt Meadows-Maple Ridge MP Dan Ruimy took part in the event.
D’Eith noted 61,000 seniors in B.C. have been diagnosed with dementia, or about 6.6 per cent of the population over 65, and another 5,000 non-seniors have been diagnosed with dementia.
“And we have a lot of people who – especially with early onset dementia – actually don’t have the supports they need. So we have a lot of work to do there,” he said.
He pointed out the Health Ministry is giving $2.7 million to the Alzheimer’s Society, as announced last week.
The Alzheimer Society has raised almost $5 million nationally from the Make Memories Matter walks. About 70,000 people took part across the province.
