Schmitt Park sets the stage as the first 'dementia-friendly' neighborhood association in Green Bay. Here's why it matters.
GREEN BAY - The neighbors in Schmitt Park aren't only knocking on each other's doors when they need a cup of sugar. They're asking each other what they need to get through the day.
Such gestures can be chalked up to being a good neighbor, but Schmitt Park has the added benefit of being a certified dementia-friendly neighborhood by the Aging & Disability Resource Center of Brown County.
"By better understanding the disease process, we can all be more caregiving ourselves — more understanding, more tolerant, more patient and more vigilant," Beverly Bartlett, vice president of the Schmitt Park Neighborhood Association, said.
Certified in 2019, Schmitt Park is the first and only neighborhood association out of 46 in Green Bay to be certified as dementia-friendly. That's an important designation for the quarter of Schmitt Park's resident who are 60 years and older, according to census tract data from the U.S. Census Bureau.
While census tracts aren't determined by neighborhood lines, in the area surrounding neighborhoods Schmitt Park and a portion of Baird Creek, people 60 years and older make up about 1,400 of the neighborhood's roughly 6,000 residents.
Aging is the strongest known risk factor for dementia, with a majority of cases being in residents 65 years and older, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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Because of the neighborhood's status, neighbors in Schmitt Park, located on Green Bay's northeast corner abutting Baird Creek and Bay Beach Wildlife Sanctuary, can receive education from dementia specialists about the symptoms and characteristics of dementia, learn to detect stages of the disease and how to support family caregivers.
Caregiving has been Bartlett's calling long before she came on as vice president of Schmitt Park neighborhood association. Now 77 and retired, Bartlett worked with the Alzheimer's Association and was a board member for ADRC of Brown County until she retired in 2015.
Her training through ADRC has helped her educate fellow residents of Schmitt Park on expected behavioral changes, depending on the person's dementia stages, which can also give loved ones a better sense of emotional and financial preparation.
It's also a chance to help guide family caregivers and people with early-stage dementia on how to talk about the illness with their primary care physicians, which can include "taking copious notes about symptoms and suspicions of symptoms," Bartlett said.
Bartlett says awareness has the potential to destigmatize dementia, an umbrella term for neurocognitive diseases including Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.
"If friends and neighbors don't know someone has Alzheimer's, they could be very taken aback by the things that a person says or does," Bartlett said. "If they know the truth and they know more about the disease, they're going to understand and be more aware of ways they can help the caregiver."
After working to have the neighborhood designated as "dementia friendly," Bartlett formed a family caregiver support group for Schmitt Park residents in 2020.
While the pandemic quickly hijacked efforts by the support group to meet in person, the group was able to gather remotely. Then, Curative Connections donated a space for the group to meet monthly after clinical hours, with the stipulation that everyone had to be masked and vaccinated.
The support group is something that Schmitt Park resident Steve B. has benefited from, attending nearly every support group offered since they began in-person meetings in August. Steve requested the newspaper not disclose his surname, for confidentiality reasons and the safety of his relative.
Three years ago, Steve's father, then a resident of Rice Lake, had a stroke. While he was still recovering, he fell. In a familiar turn of events for the elderly, that fall had irreversible consequences, pushing him from self-sufficient living to requiring 24-hour care.
Soon after this incident, Steve's father developed dementia.
Steve, who has lived in Schmitt Park for over 35 years, made the decision to move his father to Green Bay, where Steve's son could be his full-time caregiver.
Attending dementia training support groups has been vital for Steve and his family, he said. Steve is able to attend monthly training support groups and bring that information to his son, who can then incorporate those ideas into caring for his grandfather.
The training also allowed Steve to be proactive about how he and his wife show up for his son and his father. Steve learned quickly from the training program the significance of caregiver burnout, and, as much as he can avoid his son experiencing burnout, does what he can to give his son breaks.
"My wife and I go over and give my son breaks every day. He gets about a four-hour break every day where he can go to the gym or do his shopping or whatever he needs to do," Steve said. "Without that break, I'm sure he would be burning out."
What it means to be a dementia friend
When Steve started attending meetings last August, he hoped to see more attendees in chairs. It's a service that can alleviate family strains and bring community at a challenging time, Steve said.
"One of the things we find out is that people slowly start to abandon you when you're tied down and giving that care," Steve said. "It benefits caregivers a lot to have somebody to talk to.
The meetings, which take place every fourth Wednesday of the month at Curative Connections, are meant to not only train people on the ins and outs of dementia, but to signal to the community that you or a loved one has dementia and needs guidance.
Perhaps ironically, Steve said he believes the lack of attendance is due to hesitancy on the part of relatives to come forward and ask for help.
Education makes vigilance possible, Bartlett said. It means being able to spot someone with dementia wandering the streets, which can make all the difference in the world for both the person's well-being and that of their caregivers.
Devon Christianson, executive director of the ADRC of Brown County, said ADRC's role starts with putting a dementia specialist into the community. Awareness, education and support follow.
"I always say dementia changes everything in terms of your relationship with your caregivers and their children and your financial health and your emotional well-being" Christianson said. "The trajectory is a difficult one, which is why we put a lot of energy around supporting those families."
To be a dementia friend is to be supportive and compassionate of both the person with dementia and the family caregiver, whose frustrations too must be met with understanding, education and care.
Steve said the trainings have empowered his family to be more thoughtful about how they take care of their loved one.
"I learned how important exercise is (for people with dementia). You can't let the person just hide away and lay in bed all the time," Steve said. "You have to get them out, get them moving, get that circulation going."
Bartlett hopes that the efforts by Schmitt Park create a ripple effect for other neighborhood associations in Green Bay and beyond.
"We need to encourage people to be supportive of the caregiver," Bartlett said. "That caregiver needs someone to befriend them and be supportive of them as they serve their loved one. By better understanding the disease process, we can all be more caregiving ourselves."
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Natalie Eilbert covers mental health issues for USA TODAY NETWORK-CENTRAL WISCONSIN. She welcomes story tips and feedback. You can reach her at neilbert@gannett.com or view her Twitter profile at @natalie_eilbert. If you or someone you know is dealing with suicidal thoughts, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-8255 or text "Hopeline" to the National Crisis Text Line at 741-741.
This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Schmitt Park is the first dementia friendly neighborhood in Green Bay
