We've created a learner guide for this session for you to use as a follow-up resource. You can extend your learning on the topic, it's a great resource to bring to your team for conversation around this effort. You can customize the guide, if you have specific questions you'd like to add to your guide to help activate and make this -- put this work to action. So be sure to check out the guide as well. I'm so excited to welcome today's presenters. We have three presenters all who have been very involved with ALA's library services for patrons with Alzheimer's and dementia interest group. We're thrilled to be collaborating with the interest group on this effort. I'm excited to introduce our three presenters. Mary Beth Riedner comes as a retired librarian, still doing very much in the field. She's the creator of Tales & Travel, we'll talk more about that. And she's the past chair for the LS4DA interest group. Tami Hurst is the adult services assistant at the Olathe Public Library in Kansas. And Chris Johnson is doing to be active in chat with us, she helped pull this session together, and also served as current chair of the interest group, Christine Johnson is the director of the Waterford Public Library in Connecticut. Welcome to all three of you. I'm excited about this session. We were discussing in the planning that really so many of us have been touched by dementia in our families. Including myself. My father passed away from Alzheimer's, so this is a very important topic to many of us, and to those of you who are gathered here today, thank you so much for being here. I'm going to pass it on over to Mary Beth and have her get us started. Welcome. >> MARY BETH RIEDNER: I'll let you decide to turn on your video as well. >> MARY BETH RIEDNER: I think we're ready. Thanks so much, Jennifer. And hello, everybody. We'll just get started, because we have a lot to talk about. So the number of people living with dementia is large and continues to grow. The Alzheimer's Association estimates that there are over 6.5 million people in the U.S. today living with Alzheimer's. They project the number will rise to nearly 13 million by 2050. And that's just the diagnosed cases. It's been reported nearly 50% of all dementias go undiagnosed. In addition, there are more than 15 million American family members and friends who provide unpaid care to this population. The map on the left shows the projected increases for the next few years in each state across the country. You can also find a fact sheet for your state by going to the Alzheimer's Association web page, and clicking on "alzheimer's" in each state. So what is dementia? One definition from the Alzheimer's Association is that it's an umbrella term describing a variety of diseases and chance develop when nerve cells in the brain, called neurons, die or no longer function normally. The death or malfunction of neurons causes changes in one's memory, behavior, language, and ability to think clearly. While 60-80% of those living with dementia have been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, with traditional short-term memory loss, there are many other types of dementia, including vascular dementia, dementia with Lewy Body, or frontotemporal dementia, or FTD. A significant number of people are being diagnosed with young onset dementia, as early as their 40s and 50s. Dementia is a progressive disease that moves through several stages, commonly designated as early, middle, and late, or mild, moderate, and severe. Frequently people are not even diagnosed until they have entered the middle stage. Progression of dementia can be fairly fast, or last for up to two decades. Each person's abilities are affected differently, and at their own individual pace. There are tremendous amounts of variation. So it's safe to say when you have met one person with dementia, you have met one person with dementia. A report on the living arrangements of people with Alzheimer's disease and related dementias was accomplished in 2017. It indicates that 81% of people living with dementia are still living at home in the community. With only 19% living in residential care settings or nursing homes. This has great implications for libraries, as many of these people are still walking into our buildings. I was honored to be my late husband Steve's caregiver through a 10-year journey with a rare young onset dementia called primary progressive aphasia. A form of FTD. It's through what we experienced together that I learned how much people living with dementia want to retain their identity, dignity, and independence. Despite the inevitable progress of their disease. When I retired from my position as University librarian for Roosevelt University in Chicago, in 2008, I started offering a book and reading program which I called Tales & Travel as a volunteer in a local memoriery care facility. The program takes people living with dementia on imaginary trips to locations across the United States and the globe, using library materials. In 2011, I began partnering with the public library in Elgin, Illinois, and the program has expanded with grants, awards, and a number of conference presentations, journal ARSL, and book chapters. There is a Tales & Travel website that provides librarians and others with a free toolkit to replicate the program. And to adapt for their own communities. It includes a video of the program in action, as well as 12 excursion guides, and tales from 31 destinations made freely available through a creative commons license. As I was developing Tales & Travel, I was inspired by the guidelines for library services to persons with dementia developed by the International Federation of Library Associations or IFLA in 2007. These guidelines were based on the efforts of librarians in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom who early on advocated for the use of books and reading with this population. These guidelines are still relevant today. Tales & Travel is not a passive program. It was designed from the beginning to give participants actively involved in the sessions. In a way, similar to art and music therapists, we use their specialties to engage those living with dementia, librarians can use literacy activities as a vehicle to encourage participation. We know it's helpful to engage all our senses when participating in a cognitive activity. And a book is a terrific manipulative that stimulates memories and prompts conversation. After showing them the destination on a globe or large map, we invite them to take turns reading out loud from a folk tale, legend, or myth associated with the chosen location. We retype the story in large font to make it easier to read, and to maintain their dignity. Most can still read and do so with gusto. Those who don't choose to read aloud, follow along with printed text or listen quietly. We also share five interesting facts with them, again, inviting them to read them outloud. We often hear comments such as, I didn't know that! Or, isn't that amazing? We then distribute books. Carefully selected from both the adult and children's collections for them to browse through. The most important criteria is that the books be richly illustrated with color photographs. Over the years, I have also been inspired by the emerging concept of person-centered care. The Alzheimer's Society in the United Kingdom offers these five points to explain this approach. Especially significant here is the second bullet, about understanding what makes each person unique. And also the last one about ensuring they have chances to try new things or take part in activities that they enjoy. Like reading and going to the library. One commonly held stigmatizing stereo type is that people living with dementia cannot read. But research actually shows just the opposite. Michelle, a professor at the University of South Florida, stated in a 2010 "New York Times" article, that all my research demonstrates that people who were literate maintain their ability to read until the end stages of dementia. Claridge points out that family members say, since they can't remember what a book is about, there's no longer any point in giving them books to read. However, they say the reading process itself may be beneficial to counteract loneliness, lack of self-worth, and boredom. Bourgeois conducted another study published in 2011, the study findings indicate reading and comprehension were enhanced when the reading material was more relevant to the person's interests and experiences. And this jives nicely with the second tenet of that person-centered care approach about understanding what makes each person unique. We need to recognize that there may be different purposes for reading after someone has been diagnosed with a form of dementia. Now instead of reading a best-selling novel, they might enjoy browsing through a book on a favorite HBCU. Or some other topic that is of interest to them. Literacy activities can stimulate memories and encourage social interactions and conversations. Participants can get a feeling of competence and well-being from doing something they have always enjoyed. At every session I conduct, I see people experience moments of joy at learning or relearning, something newfound in a book. It's important not to make assumptions based on prior beliefs. Facility staff and even family members are often surprised by the reading ability of participants. A simple invitation to read out loud often produces wonderful results. Don't mistake shyness for an inability to read. Browsing through nonfiction is another successful literacy activity. It's amazing to see them flipping through books on a wide variety of topics and talking with program staff and each other for over 20 minutes at a time. There are many types of literacy materials that can be used successfully. Short fiction such as folk tales, short stories, or excerpts from classic fiction can all be used for oral reading. Nonfiction books, richly illustrated with color photographs, can be selected from both the adult and children's collection for browsing. I have found the travel theme allows for selection of a wide variety of topics, including geography, history, culture, sports, music, art and awsht, and cooking. Local history is another popular topic and gets participants remembering and eagerly talking. Gary Glazner, of the Alzheimer's Poetry Project advocates for a choral reading of poetry, along what he calls the call and response method. Typing out the lyrics to songs in a large font makes it easier for participants to sing the whole song, and not just the chorus. Word games are another way to engage participants in a literacy activity. In Tales & Travel I incorporate both -- did I miss up? Fiction and nonfiction. Let me remind you again that 31 folk tales are available on the Tales & Travel website for anyone to use. Going back to the Bourgeois study from 2011, they found that reading comprehension was enhanced when people were Ophadell personally relevant information. Person-centered care also suggests treating those living with dementia as unique individuals with their own history, experiences, and interests. I remember visiting a library in rural downstate Illinois where the librarians had pulled a number of books on training your horse for a program at a local memory care facility. That topic was chosen because many of the residents had raised horses in the past. Local history programs also bring back memories and stimulate conversation. One librarian in Springfield, Missouri, told me about a program she did on a local chocolate factory that was a great success. Especially when they passed around candy to sample. Since person-centered care advocates for being aware of each person's hobbies and life experiences, I thought I would share some of my husband's interests. Which included motorcycles, the old west, home improvement, and the Vietnam War as he was a veteran. Not the typical fare that comes to mind when talking about someone living with dementia. Format also matters. Increased white space, larger font, and relevant photographs have all been found to facilitate reading among people living with dementia. Several small independent publishers of books for this population have incorporated these format suggestions into their materials. These are perfectly fine books to use and purchase, but they appear to me to be designed for those in the late stages of their disease process, and have limited subject content. Many nonfiction children's books already incorporate these same design elements. There are two studies that have been conducted on the value of Tales & Travel that I am aware of. In 2015, my partners at the library in Elgin, Illinois, received a national network of libraries of medicine grant to study the effectiveness much the program. The results showed that the program engaged participants both cognitively and socially. In 2021, a case study of the Tales & Travel program was conducted at a Canadian public library. The authors state that Tales & Travel offers a community platform for participants to spend time in a public space and enrich their daily lives through library resources and interactions with others. Through mature and intellectual activities in a normalized setting. Before I turn the program over to Tami, I'd like to say something about using books from the children's or juvenile collection with people living with dementia. The IFLA guidelines and my own experience indicate that selected children's books can be appropriate. When I'm talking about children's books, I'm referring to nonfiction books, written for about third through eighth grade. I'm not referring to children's fiction, especially picture books or beginning readers. As a former children's librarian, I have great respect for children's nonfiction publishers. To whom we entrust our children's education, and whose books fill at least half the shelves of our children's departments. These collections can be mined to find appropriate books on almost any subject, and my 14 ever 14 years of experience demonstrates they're readily accepted by beam living with dementia. It may be time to enlist the aide h aid of your children's librarians. It's the similar police TIFF of children's books that makes them so appropriate. And there is already a whole treasure trove of materials at our fingertips. Jennifer, are there any questions from the chat that should be addressed now? >> JENNIFER PETERSON: Thanks, Mary Beth, there was one question that would be great to get your response to. Someone said they were curious as to how the small reading groups do the reading aloud, are they invited to read what they're finding of interest from their book during the group sessions? >> MARY BETH RIEDNER: When we read aloud are the stories that I provided in the printed format. So everybody -- pre-pandemic everybody got a paper copy of the story. And so they could either choose to read or not to read. I would invite them by name, Doris, would you like to read? And she can say yes or no. And if they read slowly, it's very safe. People are not criticized, oh, she said that wrong, or anything. It's very open and free, and welcoming for people. But at whatever ability they have. >> JENNIFER PETERSON: That's great. And one more just came in, are caregivers invited to stay during the program? >> MARY BETH RIEDNER: Not in the ones I've been doing, because when I first started I was at a nursing home, so caregivers are not there. So I did that for the first probably seven years. And then when I started doing, I'll tell you later, at memory cafes, the ones I've joined, the care partners do not stay. They have their own support group. But it's other memory cafes they're included as well. What I like about having it separate is that as a caregiver, I know we step in whenever someone doesn't do it to our satisfaction. Quickly enough, or correctly or whatever. So the person doesn't get to shine with their own abilities, and I find when they're by themselves, they do perfectly fine. And they feel really good about themselves, and they don't have to look to their caregiver for, am I doing it right, or anything like that. >> JENNIFER PETERSON: Really great point. I can vouch from experience that caregiver experiences also need support, so even that, having them be able to be with other caregivers is so powerful for sure. That's great. Excellent. Let's have Tami pick up, and we'll continue on. Thank you so much, Mary Beth. >> TAMI HURST: Hello, my name is Tami, and I work for the Oathe Public Library. We're a suburb of Kansas City, so we're smack dab in the middle of the country in the Midwest. That's where we're coming from. My job with the library is to coordinate a service that we have called Library to You. And that's an in-person delivery service of library materials for folks that can't get to the library. In addition to the delivery that we do, we do off-site programming at local nursing homes and assisted living locations. And our programming is geared toward individuals who are not receiving our book deliveries. We find, as has been mentioned before, a lot of caregivers are hesitant to let their family member or person they're caring for have library books. They're worried the person is going to damage the book, or lose track of it. And so we see our programming as a way to continue to offer literacy activities for those who may be being denied that at the moment. As Mary Beth mentioned, Tales & Travel memories is a really good program for this particular group of individuals. I call this program our T&T program, Tried and True. This one is always accepted, it's always asked for, it always works with every group. So if you're going to try one program, this is the one to try. And I think there's a lot of reasons for that. One is that travel is generally a topic of interest for people. Another is that there's -- it helpeds itself easily to a lot of adaptation. So you can -- there's an infinite number of places you can travel to. It doesn't have to be a country, it could be a city, it could be a state. A national park. A landmark. Anything. And there's a number of different things that you could talk about about the place. So you could talk about history, culture, art, music, food. All these kinds of things lend themselves very easily to high sensory activities, which are very, very beneficial for folks living with dementia. So an important part of the Tales & Travel memory program is leaving time at the end for going through books. And so I wanted to talk just briefly, I know some of this has been mentioned before, but I wanted to touch on a few things about how we choose which books to bring. The kind of books you bring are important, because they need to meet the needs of the participants. We generally pull heavily from our children's collections, specifically the nonfiction travel books. Occasionally I will bring coffee table books, but they have to have really nice photography in them. Most of our participants are not actually doing to read adult fiction books, but they may read the captions under the picture to find out more about the picture. Sometimes we'll do travel brochures, but not very often. Some of the advantages already mentioned of using children's books is they're lightweight. Some of these large print materials can get pretty heavy. So the lightweight is advantageous. They are designed for early readers, so there's generally less text and more pictures. Even though they're not marketed as large print, you can often find them with larger fonts, which is helpful. Children's books are written to be simplified as far as sentence structure and language goes, which is also very helpful. As Mary Beth mentioned, you do have to be careful, though, that you don't want to find beginning-beginning reader books that are too simple. So remember we're working with adults. And they know they're adults. And so there's a very fine line between making it simple and making it appropriate. And not babyish. So you really need to know your group. One way that I distinguish is I think back to when my kids were learning how to read, and do you know how the early, early readers sound very choppy, not very descriptive? The go, spot, go, run, spot, run, see Dick and Jane walk. Those kind of things. You don't want anything like that. It can still be pretty simple, but it needs to read in such a way that it sounds conversational, and not choppy. So I just kind of read it out loud a few pages in my mind, and see if it sounds like a first grade reader, or if it sounds like an adult having a conversation. So here's a couple of examples of ones that I probably would not use because they're a little bit too simple. For example, the one on the right, listen to how this sounds. "the coffee is served in a metal pot with a long neck. It's thick and rich. Yum! " a little bit too simple. Not to say that a book with writing that's only a sentence or two on a page would not be appropriate, it could be, but just make sure that it sounds more conversational than easy reader. Another thing that I avoid is books that have too much going on on the page. Children's books are written and designed to catch the attention of these new readers, so they're very colorful with lots of pictures. But you want to make sure that you don't choose ones that have too much going on. The reason is because it can be distracting and hard for a person living with dementia to focus on the text and to locate the text on the page. So here's an example of one that I would not use. See how many different pictures there are? There's different texts all over the page. I would probably look for instead pages that maybe have one bank of text, and one picture. Just a little bit less going on on the page. Kind of subjective, but definitely something to consider. And absolutely positively not using any kind of drawings or cartoonish images, or puppets. Personally I love "Sesame Street," but I would not use the book on the -- my left-hand side talking about Afghanistan, even though the information inside is fabulous, I wouldn't use it because it has the puppets on it. And that could be considered babyish and offensive. The other two images here are just pictures with -- see the one on the other side with the sun, it has a smiley face. You don't want anything like that. It's better to stick with actual live photography, colored photography, and steer clear of cartoonyish images, because those can be considered babyish and offensive. You might be tempted to go to your travel guides in your library, and while they are very good for their purpose, they're made for people to -- they're made to be compact. And something that you could slip in your purse or your backpack as you're traveling. And because of that, everything is condensed into a small space, and the pages can be a little bit too crowded, and the text a little bit too small to be appropriate for the folks that we're doing programming with. I wanted to mention a couple other ideas of programs that can be used with groups like these. In addition to the Tales & Travel program. Really, you don't have to do travel. You can do programs on any subject of interest to your group. I'm going to mention just a few that we've had success with, and hopefully it might give you some ideas of things you might be able to try. One that we did this year for Halloween was to use trivia questions and old what I call dad jokes. Corny, simple, funny jokes. What we did was we had the groups sit in a circle and we had a large fuzzy die, and we let them roll the die, and if they landed on an even number, then they took a card from the jokes pile. And read it to the group and answered the joke. If they rolled an -- I can't remember if it was odd or even, but if they rolled the opposite, they took a card from the trivia question pile, and they read aloud the trivia question and the answer. And I found that even the people that seemed like they might not be paying attention, or might be sleeping, you could see the corners of their mouths turning up at the dumb jokes. You could see them mouthing the answers to some of the questions. And I found that having just one sentence on a card and asking them to read was not intimidating. And because it's a joke or a trivia question, they were highly motivated to try and answer and to read to find the answer. So this with as a good option. Any kind of trivia questions, silly jokes, typing them up on a little card and letting them take turns reading those is a lot of fun. Another one that we had success with was taking a newspaper, a magazine article and I enlarged it by retyping it in a larger font, and we took turns reading the article together. I had a group of largely men who all seemed to really enjoy baseball. And so this particular article talks about opening day of baseball season. And how it kind of marks the end of winter season in the beginning of warmer summer months, it talks a lot about some of the reminiscing about going out to the ballpark and spending time with family there. Talked a little bit about how -- why Americans love baseball. So it lent itself very easily to a lot of discussion. We talked about favorite teams, favorite players, memories of going to the ballpark, things you ate at the ballpark, all those kind of things. So it's not reading a book, but it was reading a short article. And we just took turns, and there's different ways you could do it. You can just say, hey, Joe, would you read the first paragraph? Just have them read one paragraph at a time. Or you can even use highlighters and color code, so you might say, Henry, would you mind reading the pink section? Or John, would you mind reading the blue section so it's not as intimidating to ask them to read just a short section, and not the whole thing. This one was a really good activity. Mary Beth mentioned local history is a good topic for programs. And chances are good there's already things written about the place that you might want to discuss. Here's a picture of a stage coach stop. And they already have materials on their website that talk about the stage coach stop and what happened there, and the people that own the home. So I was able to just take some things from their website, copy and paste, enlarge the font, and there we go. Chances are really good that if you do this, that the participants have been to the place, they know about it, they've had experiences with it. So it will lead to good discussions. Music is very powerful in general. I use it all the time. But it's particularly powerful when you're working with individuals who are living with memory loss. And the reason for that is because musical memories are stored in a ditch part of the brain that isn't affected until the very end stages of the disease. And so a person who maybe doesn't know exactly where they're living, or what they had for breakfast that morning may still know songs from their childhood. Or songs that they sang in church growing up. Or songs that have particular meaning to them in their life. So like Mary Beth mentioned, when you type out the lyrics, that gives them the motivation to participate and read, so they're reading the lyrics, and participating in singing the songs. And you can do it with any kind of theme, Valentine's Day, Fourth of July, 1950s, whatever is relevant to your group. We really like this sing-along with Susy Q series. She does videos with captions underneath, so you can sing along. And she has a website where you go and download already typed-up lyrics in large font to use with her program. So highly recommend her video series. But there are others. You can find them on YouTube for free. Another fun one we did was, I located some letters to Santa that had been written by children and accomplished in newspapers. Remember, our generation doesn't use newspapers as much, but the previous generation, folks that you're going to be working with, did. And a lot of times kids would write letters to Santa and they would be published in the newspaper. And so I found several of these, again, they're short, and gave each person one, and we took turns reading them aloud. It was really fun, because it was -- we got talking about Christmas traditions, when did you find out the truth about Santa, what kinds of things did you ask Santa for when you were young. What kind of toys were popular? Those kind of discussions. You can find these on the Library of Congress has a website where they have digitized old newspapers that you can access for free. Newspapers.com is another good source for older newspapers. If you don't have access to it, you can go to the Midwest genealogy center, which is part of the mid-continent library system. And you can get an e-card for free and have access for free. You can go to your own city and county newspapers, and look in their archives, just guess about the average age of your group, and then about when they might have been elementary school age, and then search for letters to Santa in that time frame. They can be really funny, and it was a lot of fun to do that program. Another kind of program is using poetry. I just recently learned about a gentleman named Gary Glazner, and the Alzheimer's Poetry Project, and I really am excited to give this more attention. I've done two programs so far using some of his methods. You can find him on YouTube and watch him in action. Absolutely magical things that he's doing with poetry. One thing that we did was, we did a program about Veterans Day. So we did some lyrics to pay trion particular songs, and we used Gary's, what he calls call and response technique, and that's where you read a line of the poem, and the group answers by reading the line -- saying it back to you. You read the next line, the group answers by reading it back to you. And I found in my experience to far that it really increases participation. Folks are anxiously engaged and focused, they're listening, because they know it's going to be their turn to respond. And they really enjoy it. Even the ones that are kind of sleepy at first will wake up and participate. For our program, just last week we did a Christmas sing-along, and part of that program, it was with a group that had some serious challenges. They were in a very progressed in their dementia, so very low functioning group. So I did this call and response technique, but I used Deck the Halls. The song Deck the Halls. There's the repeating line, if a La, La, La, La, La, La, La, La, and I had the group repeat just that part. And we did it in a more rhythmic way, so we did, Feeding America La, La, La, La, La, La, La, La. And we just practiced that a little bit, and then when it was time to do the poem, I would read the line of the poem, like, deck the balls with Boes of Holly, and then they would repeat, fa La, La, La, La, La, La, La. And I would say, 'tis the season to be jolly, and they would repeat the Fa, La, La. They thought it was fun and interesting to actually read the song instead of singing it. So I encourage you, poetry -- if poetry is something you're interested in, do a little research on Gary and to learn about the Alzheimer's Poetry Project. On their website they have two books, he has a book that he's written that describes his methods, it's called Dementia Arts Book, it's on the Alzheimer's Poetry Project website. And then he also has a book called Sparking Memories where he has just published a book of poems that he uses. Again, tried and true, T&T poems that have been used regularly with this population with success. So highly encourage you to give poetry a try. And when all else fails, write your own materials. We found a book for adults called We All Scream for Ice Cream, it's a book about the history of ice cream. It talked about where they think the idea first started, how it got to America, the beginning of the invention of the crank ice cream maker, the first ice cream sandwiches, when they figured out how to put ice cream on a stick to make a popsicle. The ice cream trucks that would drive around. So I just took each section and just summarized it into a paragraph or two. Typed it out in large print, found some pictures, and we made our own book. And for the program we read our book. And each person just took turns reading one page, and we would talk about it. It led to some really good discussions and good memories brought up. And of course we had ice cream to eat. So it was a highly sensory activity as well. So just in closing on my part, I just want to encourage you to not be afraid to do programming with older events Liking with memory concerns. They benefit so much from access to literacy -- literature. Books, poetry, just think outside the box. Don't only do books. You can also type out your own trivia questions, type up your own ARSL from the newspaper. Anything that whether reading is beneficial. And it's so much fun. And it's a bit of a trial and error thing, so if you don't have success the first time, keep trying. Just go into it with a happy heart, and be ready to switch gears at any moment, and you will find a lot of enjoyment from doing programming with this group. I'm going to stop for a moment and see, do we have any questions so far? >> JENNIFER PETERSON: Yeah. I've been collecting questions, I think let's go ahead and continue on, because I know that some of them are going to be answered in this content, but let's continue on, keep your questions coming, and we'll circle around at the end. Thank you so much, Tami, that was fantastic. >> TAMI HURST: I'll send it back to Mary Beth. >> MARY BETH RIEDNER: Okay. Thanks, Tami, for those terrific and practical tips. I'd like to tell you now about the only other reading program that I'm aware of that focuses on those living with dementia. At the same time that TIFF was experimenting with Tales & Travel, the read rer organization in the United Kingdom in connection with the University of Liverpool, began a study of their shared reading, literature-based intervention. In the original 2013 study, short excerpts from fiction works or poems were read to a group. The leaders asked questions to stimulate discussion. The study found that engagement in reading group activity appeared to produce a significant reduction in dementia symptoms severity. So more studies on shared reading quickly followed. The study on the classic tale of a Christmas Carol, they found literary fiction can be adapted for eastbound Hansed readability and enjoyment, but adap takeses must recognize complex language may be preserved until late in the disease. I have found that the case too. In 2019 there was a literature review of shared reading programs, and the five study there sum rised their benefits as improved social engagement, improved mood and behavior, a sense of enjoyment, and improved communication. So how can librarians provide meaningful programs for the large numbers of people still living at home? Memory cafes are one answer. These are social gatherings for those living in the community who are usually in the early or middle stages of their disease process. Often accompanied by a family member or care partner. These cafes serve as places to have fun, find support, share experiences, and people living with dementia often experience great socializes layings. And memory cafes have proven to help break that isolation. Libraries can be great places to host memory cafes. Often in partnership with other community organizations. One such organization is Dementia Friendly America, which is a national initiative to engage all sectors of a community in supporting those who live with dementia and their caregivers. This collaborative effort unites all aspects of a community, including government bodies, first responders, businesses, faith communities, legal and financial services, health services, community organizations, and libraries. There are now dementia friendly communities in 38 states across the country, and you can find out if any are located in your state or city at this web page. Among the resources at the DFA website are guides for the various identified sectors, including one for libraries. It has many ideas for taking action within your own library and community. If you want to find out more about memory cafes, here are two resources you might find useful. The memory cafe directory can help you identify memory cafes already in existence in your state with whom you might want to develop a partnership. The percolator memory cafe network in Massachusetts is becoming a nationwide leader in the field of memory cafes. Their website provides toolkits in English and Spanish, and their archived quarterly meetings are terrific resources for anyone wanting to start a memory cafe. In 2017, I started bringing my Tales & Travel program once a month to two memory cafes in Arizona. These cafes met weekly before the pandemic, and one of these cafes had a weekly attendance of 50-60 people. I used the basic Tales & Travel format that TIFF outlined earlier, but as this was a longer program, I needed to add additional literacy activities. So I added things such as singing songs, using printed hereis, choral reading of poetry, word games, and adult coloring pages. During the pandemic, when cafes could not meet in person, some migrated to a virtual format. I converted Tales & Travel into an online format which I now call Tales & Travel Adventures. I created content using photographs from my own travels, and I wrote a simple narration that people living with dementia are invited to read aloud themselves. There are now 11 adventures that are available both as YouTube videos and PowerPoint .pdfs on the Tales & Travel website under the memory cafe tab. I'm using these adventures at one of the now revived in-person memory cafes. The participants still read out loud and browse through nonfiction books, and we continue singing, reading poetry, and using word games and adult coloring pages. It's like a party, and it's lots of fun. Other libraries and organizations are designing their own digital content for people living with dementia, incorporating interactive literacy activities. The Champaign, Illinois, public library in conjunction with their historical archives have created their own series of videos with a lot history theme. Recently Rush University's Alzheimer's disease center in Chicago created an activity book in honor of Black History Month, that incorporates a number of literacy activities. You may be asking if there are additional resources to help train your staff on how to work with people living with dementia. Here is a link to a free national network of libraries of medicine YouTube video and as you can see, the objectives include understanding dementia, identifying the strengths and needs of people living with dementia, developing better communication techniques. And describing the library practices. So what's next? We hope that we have given you some inspiration to experiment with offering book and reading activities to your patrons living with dementia. The best practices are just being created right now, and you could be part of that. This audience is so receptive and so hungry for cognitive engagement activities. We should never under Cincinnati them. Instead, we should focus on their remaining strengths, and not their losses. I would like to suggest that libraries might consider offering individual readers advisory appointments to people living with dementia and their care partners. The ALA interest group, LSDA, is just starting to develop a questionnaire to help garner information that could be helpful in selecting books for individuals. This checklist could include things like their prior career, where they've lived or visited, major life events, and specifics such as hobbies, or favorite sports teams. Using their responses, books could be pulled prior to their arrival, so they would not know where in the library they came from. I know a lot of this is time intensive, but the results would be so worth it. Another way to use your timewisely is to develop partnerships with other local organizations that are working with the same population. Such as the Dementia Friendly communities in your state, and can state chapters of the Alzheimer's Association. Area Agencies on Aging are another local resource, as are research hospitals. Finally, several libraries in the same geographic area might want to collaborate together to make the best use of everyone's time and energy. And one example is this library memory project in Wisconsin, which is just fantastic. 21 libraries participating. I think this might be a great solution for small or rural libraries. In conclusion, I'd like to say that really your enthusiasm and creativity are the only limits. I'm going to turn things over to Chris, who has a few final comments. >> CHRISTINE JOHNSON: Thanks very much, Mary Beth. And thank you as well Tami, I think that was an amazing presentation that you both just offered to the community. I just wanted to say quick hello and thank you to everyone for joining us today and thank you in particular WebJunction and general for for offering to host us today. As Mary Beth mentioned at the very beginning of her presentation, this is a growing population, and we're going to continue to need some find ways to serve these folks because they are in our community right now. They're part of our communities. And they deserve library services just like everyone else in the community. I'm here today as the current chair of the library services for dementia and Alzheimer's interest group. We are part of the American Library Association's office for diversity, literacy and outreach services, but you can participate in our group whether or not you are a member of ALA. If you are a member of ALA, we do have an ALA connect group underly bring services for dementia and Alzheimer's, but we also have an open public Google group, and it's the LS4DA Google group. There is information on the web page for this session on how to join that group. Right now we've been pushing out a lot of information there, but we're also hoping that more folks will join and share their experiences, just like we did in the session today. Because we all learn when we hear from others. We also are trying to grow our group, we're going to be having an open forum meeting in February, so if you do get on to our Google group, you'll hear information about that, and you're welcome to just sign on again on Zoom, join us, and listen to what folks have to say, or share your ideas and ask questions. All voices are welcome in the group. And we're looking for all levels of experience. It's just a matter, like Tami said, of having an open heart and wanting to do this work. And try it. If it doesn't do well the first time, you just try it again, just like all other types of library services. And I did also want folks to know that we will be looking for assistance on the leadership team, so anyone looking to grow their resume or want to be involved, we're very warm well coulding team, there's a small group of us right now and we're always looking for help, we're going to be working on that questionnaire to provide more patron-centric service for folks with Alzheimer's and dementia, so you're welcome to join us on that. And there's also an opportunity right now for a grant opportunity. I think we have a slide on that with some details. And this as Mary Beth mentioned, her husband Stephen has passed from Alzheimer's, early onset dementia, I should say, not Alzheimer's, and she and some family members are actually part of the group that sponsored this annual award, they are going to be giving out two $2500 grants this year, applications are due by February 17th. And it's basically for libraries, any library can apply, you do not need to be part of the group, but you do need to be for a new service that you're providing. Not an existing service. In particular to enhance service for people living with dementia. So again, there's a link to that in the chat. We hope that you will apply for that. And again, I thank everyone today for joining us for this session. And thank you as well. Jennifer. >> JENNIFER PETERSON: Fantastic. Thank you so much. That's so great to hear about all the wonderful work you're doing together. Thank you all three of you. I've got a few questions, we've got a little bit of time. There were a handful of questions related to the experience, the varied experiences of folks with dementia and Alzheimer's. So can you -- let's maybe have Mary Beth, can you talk a little bit about how you approached the varied levels of the different stages, so if you have an event, how -- is there frustration ever between folks at different stages of memory loss or different types of dementia? >> MARY BETH RIEDNER: It's amazing how wonderful these people are. They are so caring and kind to each other, there's nothing. If someone is struggling, someone else might say, okay, it's you this word. Nobody is rude or mean or anything. It's just fantastic. And they're just so happy to be together. And to have some friends. They're very sweet to each other. >> JENNIFER PETERSON: And Tami mentioned in chat that if they don't know the answers to, for instance, trivia or jokes, that people -- they're eager to jump in and help each other. So I think you're spot on in terms of their hearts just being really big. So that's great. There was another question about, is it when working with folks, is it helpful to give them choices beyond yes or no? Can you talk a little bit about how engagement works best for folks? >> MARY BETH RIEDNER: Well, most of the engagement happens in my program where -- when they're browsing through books. And I just wander around and say oh, look at that. And they'll say, oh, this is so fantastic, I really -- I went skiing when I was in Austria too. It brings back memories, and they talk to each other, which I heard from other facility staff that they don't talk to each other as much, but if they're looking at a book together, they're talking to each other. It's really helpful with social interaction as well. So, yeah, I don't do around asking questions. We just make comments on what we see. It's just a very conversational and easygoing. >> JENNIFER PETERSON: Sounds good. In terms -- you touched on collaborating with other folks or how to reach out to care facilities. Can you just talk a little bit about the -- some of your partnerships are hosted at the library all those folks that are living at home still, but in terms of the kinds of partnerships or connections you make with nursing homes, can you talk a little bit about that? >> MARY BETH RIEDNER: Tami, do you want to jump in on that? I always found nursing homes are thrilled to get any kind of free program can. Especially from a reputable institution. >> TAMI HURST: They're desperate for people to come in that aren't going to charge them a dime. >> MARY BETH RIEDNER: We just reached out -- ask for the activity director, that might be the person -- >> TAMI HURST: Activity director, they have some kind of fancy name like community enhancement or something, you know. It's activity director is usually the person that schedules people to come in to do programming. Sometimes it's a little bit of a sell, where you have to explain, okay, this is a travel program, but we're not bringing anybody in from another country who has lived there. It's more of a, let's learn together kind of program. Sometimes it's a little bit of an explanation, because it's something different that they haven't tried before. But my experience, they don't care. They just want you to come. >> MARY BETH RIEDNER: Unless they see what the program does and how the people are engaged, they welcome you back. I remember one of the staff, facility staff saying at the beginning, they stayed the whole hour! >> JENNIFER PETERSON: Wonderful. >> MARY BETH RIEDNER: It is engaging. >> JENNIFER PETERSON: We are at the top of the hour. I encourage folks to explore, there's already an additional set of resources from the interest group. I'll put that in chat. And definitely reach out, you have their contact information. Oh, wait, we have 75 minutes. We can still talk about more questions! Thank you! I forgot about that. I'm not used to that. There was a question around staff level of experience, and Tami, when you started talking about your work, it sounded like you came into this. Can you just talk about, is it helpful for staff to have training? If they have limited experience with people suffering from Alzheimer's or dementia? And then there was a question kind of connected to that about how many people are needed for some of this programming. And I think that's a good question in terms of knowing how many folks you have in a room, how many folks are facilitating. So can you talk a little bit about what that has looked like for you all? >> TAMI HURST: In my position there are two of us that job share, and we coordinate the program together. So generally we just go, just two of us. And usually when we go to a facility, staff members vacate, they see it as a time for them to take a break or get something else done. It's very rare for the staff to actually stay in the room with us. Eventually I would like to bring a few volunteers with us, because I think that would give more people more face-to-face conversation. But we do okay with just the two of us. I do most of the talking, and then my coworker circulates around the room, making sure that people have help staying on the right page, or if there's some kind of need that needs to be addressed while we're going, she'll take care of that. So I'd say minimum probably two, just so that you have one person that's doing the talking, and you don't have to stop and assist someone with something. Ideally more if you can bring them, because then they're getting more and more one-on-one. >> MARY BETH RIEDNER: I agree, you don't have to have a lot of people, but more is better, of course. Sometimes I think when we started at nursing homes, we asked that a staff member be close by, or in the room, because people need to go get their glasses, or go to the bathroom, you know. Many something happens. So -- and that's not our responsibility. So it's important to have that. When I work at this memory cafe here in Arizona, it's at a church. And people say, oh, I don't get to go to the library. I said, that's okay, I'll bring the library to you. So we're in a meeting room that they have. I always set things up if I can into a U shape, so that they can look at each other, it's not little separate tables. But it's a group effort. And then I can walk around in the middle and I pass around books, and if somebody is board, I can say S. here's an extra one, take a look at this one. So it's -- yeah, I actually handle the payment self by myself. There are 11 people this past Monday, and it was just two volunteers from the memory cafe were there when somebody needed to go to the bathroom, one wondered where their spouse was. It's helpful to have more hands, but you should not do at this time alone-alone, because they do need extra help at times. >> JENNIFER PETERSON: That sounds good. So you guys have talked about facility training, programs and facilities or ones in the library. And those obviously have different sort of marketing approaches too. Somebody brought up marketing, and I wonder how that market can would vary for those two settings. If you were -- obviously if you're marketing for the facility, maybe they help with some of the promotion? Within the nursing home? >> MARY BETH RIEDNER: Oh, yeah, they usually have a group of people already assum of assembled to do something. And I would encourage you to do these in the morning. People are at their best in the morning. I've just found that to be a helpful time to do this. >> JENNIFER PETERSON: And how about marketing for events hosted at the library, or how you make connections with the families? >> MARY BETH RIEDNER: I had the automatically the Dementia Friendly, it was the Tempe Public Library, one of the first. Of the Dementia Friendly communities in the country. They decided to hold these at the library, but the library did not actually participate. I did the library section of it, using their books, but -- so you can bring in volunteers from outside, to bring in outside people to help. >> JENNIFER PETERSON: Sounds good. I don't know if this is kind of related to that new survey that you all are working on, but do you know of a library that has a readers advisory form for dementia already? Or have you seen any samples of what that form looks like? >> MARY BETH RIEDNER: I think that's why we decided to create one, because we haven't found anything. But if somebody is doing it out there, please let us know. >> JENNIFER PETERSON: I think your focus on finding be out more about their interests and connections, especially I would say this is an advantage to folks working in a smaller library or rural community, where you know the community better, maybe you know that family is dealing with it, but it feels like that approach of having that perm connection to their interests might be a little bit easier if you have that, but then having some sort of form, of course, to introduce folks to that. But I think the other piece I wanted to mention in terms of training, I feel like when people talk about, well, our staff doesn't have training and understanding, the experiences of these folks, there are other webinars on WebJunction, and you've mentioned others that introduce folks to the level, I believe the level of information that folks need about dementia and the experiences of those folks, and then it's obviously the webinar like this one gives you then all those great ideas on how to actually implement some of the programs and projects. So I encourage folks to think about it that way. Let's see. Let's ask -- there's a question in chat about a little bit more about the memory cafe. I know we've kind of got to that after we talked about some other stuff. Can you talk a little bit more, Mary Beth, about the memory cafe? >> MARY BETH RIEDNER: Well, my experience has been with two here in Arizona that do meet weekly. Which is unusual. I've heard lots of other places are just once a month. But libraries have taken it on as they're the initiator of the memory cafe. And that is a challenge. I think that's -- that's why I'm encouraging so much of this partnership thing with already established groups that are already doing this work. Because that's where you really have to market a lot, I would think. And they'll say S. why is the library doing it, when it should be the hospital or something? So yeah, finding a partner I think would be really critical. And Dementia Friendly America is right there. As our Area Agency on Aging is another good source to try to find out what's happening with people with dementia in the local area. The memory cafe, I just do it once a month, even though they meet weekly. They have other volunteers come in and do other programs on music or art, or, you know, exercise, yoga, whatever. So they have a lot of variety. One thing I've noticed when I do the memory cafe is that they do like a variety of activities. An hour of an arts and crafts thing might be too much. But we have the reading, we're looking at screens from the computer projector, and we're -- everybody is involved, they're doing their best to read, and we're all looking at books, singing, and then we're maybe doing poetry. I found some ladies on Monday just automatically, I had Christmas music going on in the back ground, the Vienna Boys' Choir, and they were -- I stood there kind of led them a little bit, I was like Simon Says. You just go with the moment. Like Tami said, and you have lots of fun. >> JENNIFER PETERSON: Wonderful. Thank you so much. And yes, thank you someone mentioned the library memory project, we definitely encourage folks to explore that. I think we got to most of the questions. If there are any outstanding questions, feel free to chime in. I just wanted to have each of you maybe reflect on any final thoughts. I especially am curious, like I said, this is such a personal part of many of our lives, and I just want to thank you for doing this work, because I think it's so important for our communities and I feel like what we learn as folks not suffering yet from Alzheimer's or dementia, it's really just a rewarding experience for us as well. So I encourage folks as you move into this work, if you're new to it, if you've been doing this work, you know that the families that you intersect with, the people you intersect with, the caregivers you intersect with are so appreciative of this work as well. So thank you so much. And do you -- each of you or any of you have any final comments or suggestions to folks as they head off to begin this work themselves? >> MARY BETH RIEDNER: I'd just like to reinforce what Tami said. All you need to have is a good heart. You don't need to be a social worker to work with this group of people. You don't need to be a nurse or anything like that. We don't -- for children's work, you don't have to be a teacher or child psychologist, you just do story hours, right? So this is a group of people that are just human beings, just like the rest of us, and who still want to be part of the community. And they just -- they appreciate the one-on-one and somebody recognizing them as a valuable human being. That's really what we're giving them. >> TAMI HURST: It really doesn't matter what you talk about or what activity you do, what matters is how they felt when they were with you. They're not going to remember what country you went to last time, but they'll remember, oh, you're the library lady, we had fun with you. Let's have fun again. So I echo what she says, just treating them like human beings. There's so much interaction that happens as far as caregiving, we're the ones that come in that don't have to make them take a bath, or brush their teeth, or eat. We're the ones that are actually doing enhancing quality of life, is what I put it, just enhancing quality of life. >> JENNIFER PETERSON: Absolutely . I'll just wrap up that somebody said in chat that they really appreciate knowing that they're not alone in doing this work. So I really appreciate you bringing that to folks that maybe have felt a little bit alone in this work. So thank you so much. All right. We'll go ahead and wrap it up. A reminder that I'll send you all an email at the end of the day once the recording is posted. I'll also automatically send you a certificate for attending today, you don't need to request that. But if you have colleagues that would like to watch the webinar, the catalog will host that recording and you can access the certificates if needed there. And I'm also going to send you to a short survey as you leave. If you don't have the time today, the link will be in the email as well. But we really want to hear from you about today's session, we'll share that feedback with our presenters and it helps us in our ongoing programming. We've posted some new webinars to the calendar, so we look forward to seeing you next year. This is our last webinar of 2022. So holiday blessings to everyone, and we'll see you next year, and thank you, Tami, Mary Beth, and Chris. Take care. >> TAMI HURST: You're welcome. >> CHRISTINE JOHNSON: Happy holidays.