A group of around 50 area residents joined the ACT on Alzheimer’s – Becker action team members for the group’s Kick-Off Dinner Tuesday evening at Grace Lutheran Church.  The program included several guest speakers, small group discussions and a free dinner for all attendees.

 

The welcome and invocation was provided by Grace Lutheran Church Pastor David Johnson, immediately followed by an “overview and update” on the activities and plans for ACT on Alzheimer’s in their efforts to make Becker a “dementia-friendly city” in the future.

 

The first guest speaker for the evening was Becker Coach Dwight Lundeen, who spoke on the theme of a “Call to Action” in terms of the growing need for education and programs to meet the growing number of dementia cases.  Good Shepherd Community Director of Home Care Services Michelle Vasek then gave a presentation on Alzheimer’s and related dementia conditions and took questions from the audience on care-giving and treatments now available.

 

The session then moved into small group discussions of the questions included in the agenda packet, with ACT team members facilitating the discussion and student volunteers from the National Honor Society at Becker High School recording the comments and providing a verbal summary of the thoughts of each individual group.  Volunteers included Sam Haugen, Morgan Tillmann, Megan Albertson, Celia Mix, Dani Girtz and Brittany Beutz.  Adult volunteer reporters were Brenda Haus and Becker Police Chief Brent Baloun.

 

ACT organizer Tami Kolbinger also said that NHS students had been instrumental in inputting survey data into the ACT database prior to the kick-off event, which was a huge help in preparing the survey data for presentation at the Tuesday event.

 

After dinner was served and the table reports concluded, Denice Freih of Becker Faith-in-Action provided an over-view of the process that had gotten the ACT team this far, and saying that she was “very excited” to see the project moving into the next phase, which also involves a new grant application to help fund expansion of the program into the community.

 

The current ACT survey lists several areas of need, including a call for more awareness of dementia-related illness among the general population, wellness programs outside of care facilities, adequate services for under-served populations and adequate levels of service for dementia patients still living at home.  Strengths found in the community included having knowledgeable people who can observe the early warning signs of dementia, adequate levels of counseling and support, having people with the skills to interact with people with dementia and having people with knowledge about housing options for patients with special care needs.

 

The ACT Action Team will meet early next week to analyze the results of the Tuesday program and discuss the next steps in the project, Kolbinger said.