Law Enforcement & First Responder Dementia Friendly Training

This past spring, the West Alabama Area Agency on Aging was awarded a 2018 Dementia Friendly Community mini-grant from the Central Alabama Aging Consortium (CAAC) under CAAC’s Dementia Friendly Alabama Initiative. Funding from the grant was used by our agency for outreach in our seven county West Alabama region as well as Dementia Friendly training for law enforcement and first responders, the purchase of Dementia Friendly Toolkits and Project Life Connect red envelopes created by the Middle Alabama Area Agency on Aging (M4A), copies of the book “The 36 Hour Day” written by Nancy L. Mace, MA and Peter V. Rabins, MD, MPH, which will be distributed to caregivers in West Alabama, and to print Dementia Friendly resource packets designed by the West Alabama Area Agency on Aging. 
Over 45 people from all over Alabama attended Law Enforcement and First Responder Dementia Friendly Training Tuesday, July 24th, at the Bryant Conference Center in Tuscaloosa. The event featured speakers from a variety of backgrounds including doctors, social workers, law enforcement and first responders to show the importance of how being educated in Dementia will make Alabama a more Dementia Friendly community. 
The West Alabama Area Agency on Aging would like to thank the Alabama Department of Senior Services (ADSS); CAAC; M4A; Dementia Friendly Initiative; Vicki Kerr, of Caring Days; Bill Anderson, Tuscaloosa County Sheriff’s Office Deputy; Keith Fair, Tuscaloosa County Sheriff’s Deputy/Mental Health Task Officer; Officer Josh Senkbeil, of the Tuscaloosa Police Department; Dr. Donal Conway, Medical Director and Chairman of Emergency Medicine at DCH Regional Medical Center; Travis Parker, EMS Program Specialist at the University of Alabama; volunteer Beverly Callahan and everyone else who attended and has a heart for dementia awareness. 
If you are interested in becoming a trainer to help spread the Dementia Friendly initiative, please contact Nikki Poe, our Aging Services Coordinator, at 205-333-2990 ext. 203 or Nikki.poe@westal.org