Princeton is dementia friendly: Local organization hopes to raise awareness

Local leaders, community members and city officials gathered Monday night at the Princeton City Council meeting to officially proclaim Princeton as a dementia friendly community.

The proclamation was signed by Mayor Joel Quiram is response to the work that the new organization, Dementia Friendly-Princeton, has done to raise awareness and develop respect and inclusion for people with dementia.

“Someone in the world develops dementia every three seconds, with an estimated 47 million people worldwide living with dementia” Quiram read from the proclamation. “Over 5 million Americans, one in eight people age 65 and older, is living with dementia. Nearly 60% of people with dementia live in their own community homes and one in seven live alone.”

Dementia Friendly-Princeton first began a little over a year ago when Director of the Bureau County Senior Center, Denise Ihrig, was contacted by Western Illinois Area Agency on Aging to participate in an initiative with the Illinois Cognitive Resource Center.

The ICRC was tasked with supporting communities in Illinois through the process of becoming more dementia friendly.

Once approached, Ihrig put together a letter that was sent to various leaders and members of the community, asking for their help in officially bringing the organization to Princeton.

“We got together and for the last year we have met to discuss where gaps in services for people with dementia and their caregivers exist in our community and what initiatives we could develop to fill them,” Ihrig said.

The group identified four initiatives that they will act upon: start a caregivers support group in partnership with the local alzheimer’s association, put together a nine-week stress buster caregiver program that will begin in May, distribute caregiver packets with resources throughout the community and offer community education and raising awareness by creating dementia friends.

Through Dementia Friendly-Princeton, local organizations and business will be able to be considered a friend by having their employees or members take part in a free hour-long training.

The group will also be providing a display for businesses to place and share that they are a dementia-friendly business.

Through the Princeton Police Department, caregivers who get involved in the organization can also be given a tracking device that can be worn by an individual with dementia.

The devices are water and impact proof and will operate on radio frequency rather than a gps. This enables the device’s battery to last much longer, needing to be changed or recharged every few months or longer.

Caregivers receiving the device will be given a kit in order to change the battery and a device to test the tracker to ensure it is working.

“If someone were to go missing, they would call us and would have officers respond with a tracking system,” Police Chief Tom Kammerer said. “Through the radio frequency, we are then able to narrow down where they are at.”

Kammerer also said that on the ground, the department would have about a mile reach, but in the air this would increase to around five miles.

The city of Princeton has received substantial donations toward the purchase of these devices and more fundraising will be taking place through the Starved Rock Community Cares Foundation.

Those taking part in the program can also opt-in to providing information on the individual and/or caregivers to the Police Department. According to Kammerer, this information could significantly help officials locate an individual in case they go missing.

“Not everything works all of the time, but the more options we have, the better or chances are of locating people if they go missing,” Kammerer said.

Aside from tracking and training, the group also hopes to bring more awareness of people with dementia to the community and help them be more equipped to help those that may become lost or confused.

The group’s hard work behind the scenes officially paid off on Feb. 3, as Princeton was welcomed as the 26th Illinois community to be officially recognized as a dementia friendly community and part of the Dementia Friendly-America Network.

“I’m very proud of this and the work that we have all come together and done,” Ihrig said. “We are here tonight to share this exciting news with all of you and we look forward to working with the residents of this great community.”

The organization is still fine tuning some specifics in the sign-up process that will soon be available at multiple places throughout the community including the Princeton Police Department, Bureau County Senior Center and more.

For anyone with questions or wanting the learn more, the organization will be hosting a dementia friend training in April that will walk participants through the education of what they are trying to accomplish.