Dementia Friends Interview: Aleiah Mann
Pictured above: The DFA team from left to right: Aleiah Mann, Mary Ek and Darya Rahbar.
To wrap up the celebration of the tenth anniversary of Dementia Friends Minnesota, we spoke to Aleiah Mann, Senior Program Associate, Dementia Friendly America, to hear what is happening with Dementia Friends and DFA across the country.
What should Minnesota Dementia Friends and Dementia Friendly Communities know about DFA?
DFA is so excited be coming up on our ten-year anniversary! We have grown so much over these ten years and are proud to say we have over 400 dementia friendly communities and over 180,000 Dementia Friends nationwide.
DFA has a lot of exciting things happening and we are excited to share them with you and the larger DFA network.
DFA has recently given our website a fresh, new, modern look! Our new site offers updated resource listings, an online community application, a community directory and much more. Additionally, we’ve integrated Dementia Friendly America and Dementia Friends USA. The integration of these two sites provides a better representation of the relationship of these initiatives and how their alignment can be leveraged in dementia friendly efforts—and it just makes sense to have a one stop shop!
DFA has partnered with TimeSlips and now hosts their no-cost Friends and Family training that is designed for anyone looking to learn new ways to connect with a loved one experiencing cognitive changes. Created in collaboration with family caregivers, this Friends and Family training takes approximately 45 minutes to complete and will provide you with an introduction to TimeSlips and creative engagement tools that you can put to immediate use. The concepts taught in this module can be infused into any point of care and will increase opportunities for joy and meaning in your care partnership.
DFA is extremely grateful to have Community Convenors in 28 states! To foster a greater sense of connection and collaboration between our Community Convenors, DFA now hosts quarterly Dementia Friendly Community Convenor meetings as an opportunity to share best practices, discuss successes and challenges, and learn about each state’s dementia friendly efforts.
Dementia Friends USA is so proud of all the wonderful work of our 34 sublicense holders nationwide. Over time we have heard from our sublicense holders about the need to update the national curriculum. This year, we surveyed some of our sublicense holders and responded to those requests. In partnership with Dementia Friends Minnesota, Dementia Friends Idaho and our internal communications team, Dementia Friends USA has updated our curriculum to use more inclusive language, include a section about brain health, remove the Broken Sentences Activity, update the Evaluation and Action Steps form, and much more. These curriculum updates are now included in our host of Dementia Friends resources along with an updated Dementia Friends Information Session PowerPoint.
What are you excited about for national work in 2025?
DFA is so excited about the new things coming in 2025.
DFA will launch a national media campaign to celebrate our ten-year anniversary, raise awareness about dementia and Dementia Friendly America, and increase our number of Dementia Friends, Dementia Friendly Communities, and national partnerships. We are excited about this opportunity to expand the Dementia Friendly America network, highlight the incredible work of our champions and the impact of dementia friendly communities nationwide.
DFA, in partnership with EMC2 (Expanding Memory Cafes, Enhancing Meaningful Connections) will launch the Memory Care Alliance that will include a Memory Café Directory, an online curriculum and additional resources. DFA is thrilled about this partnership as it reinforces one of our core values – authentic engagement of people living with dementia, communities with memory cafés. Stay tuned for this exciting opportunity!
DFA’s sector guides are one of our most valuable dementia friendly resources and we are in the process of updating these guides and giving them a fresh look. DFA has partnered with Dementia Action Alliance to have a group of people living with dementia and care partners along with a group of dementia friendly community leads review the updated sector guides. These new guides will be released and available via our website in early 2025.
Dementia Friends USA is in the beginning stages of planning for a new online Dementia Friends experience that is more robust and reflective of an in-person Dementia Friends session experience. We are planning to utilize an online learning management system, videos and knowledge checks to improve the online learning experience and are very excited to offer this option for individuals who do not yet have Dementia Friends in-person sessions in their community. Additionally, DF USA is partnering with one of our champions to develop an evaluation tool to measure the extended impact of session attendance.
How can Minnesotans get involved or follow what’s happening nationally in the DFA Network?
DFA encourages anyone who wants to get involved or follow what is happening with DFA to subscribe to our monthly newsletter. Simply visit dfamerica.org and scroll to the bottom of any page to see where to subscribe. All major DFA and Dementia Friends USA updates and announcements are included in our monthly newsletter in addition to current dementia updates, upcoming events, and other relevant articles and news. DFA can also be found on social media!
Follow our Facebook @Dementia Friendly America and our X (Twitter) account at @dfamerica_
