Dementia-Friendly' Restaurants Train to Help Customers

The Black Pelican Oceanfront Restaurant in Kitty Hawk, N.C., is one of 12 participating eateries in the Healthy Carolinians of the Outer Banks Dementia Task Force, a collaborative project among businesses, government agencies, restaurants, and The Outer Banks Hospital in Nags Head, N.C., to train employees to become dementia-friendly, reports the Virginian-Pilot . Task force volunteers have spent three years training restaurant staff in how to interact with people with dementia. Employees view a presentation about dementia and its signs, engage in roleplaying, and take a quiz about how to respond when those with dementia come into restaurants. Volunteer Jan Collins says she wants to get at least half of local dining establishments to enroll in the program. She notes that families and caregivers often cope with "despair and isolation" because they cannot leave the house, which the task force hopes to alleviate. "There are so many people that need assistance and we have a lot of resources, but if we don't talk about it, they don't find them," Collins says.