Dementia & Research Awareness Project for Public Libraries

The Dementia & Research Awareness project embodies the NNLM Public Library Partnership Award mission in two vital ways. One, by focusing on one group of underserved individuals that libraries are just beginning to serve those living with dementia and their care partners the project promotes the use of public libraries to support community health information needs through the use of National Library of Medicine and other quality health education resources. Stigma about dementia often keeps people from seeking diagnosis and treatment; it also precipitates withdrawal from favorite activities and places due to a lack of acceptance. The public library can help to counteract this stigma while increasing community participation by assisting the public to learn more about dementia and by welcoming this group of too-often forgotten people into their facilities. Accordingly, Library staff and trustees would benefit from additional training about the disease and about supportive strategies for interacting with people living with dementia. Accordingly, the proposal includes an introduction to NLM dementia resources and a dementia awareness curriculum that includes definition and characteristics of dementia as well as an introduction to general communication, library-specific, and environmental strategies that support people with dementia and their care partners. In-person curriculum-based training will be delivered at ten 10 diverse public libraries in northeastern Illinois, southern Illinois, and southeastern Wisconsin as well as two 2 98 communities identified in the 2018-2019 GMR NNLM Ambassador program. One onsite training session will be videotaped and posted online for later access; two training sessions will be made available via free live webinars and archived for later viewing. Sustainability will be created via online resources and a train-the-trainer program involving partnering Illinois and Wisconsin libraries. Two, because Alzheimers disease and related dementias affect a diverse, substantial, and growing population, the projects focus on dementia presents an excellent opportunity for increased public and participant awareness and understanding of the NIH Research Program. All trainings and partnering libraries will promote and/or share the research program via dementia literacy, health programs, and materials on-site and through affiliated libraries and community organizations.