Faith groups need to be aware of dementia issue: author

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This article was published 19/06/2021 (1931 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Half a million people — that’s how many people in this country have dementia, according to the Alzheimer Society of Canada. By 2030, there will be close to one million.

In this province, the Alzheimer Society of Manitoba reports more than 23,000 people have Alzheimer’s disease or another form of dementia. By 2038 it is expected more than 40,700 will have the disease.

It’s a big and growing issue, in other words, something faith groups need to be thinking about and taking seriously. Helping them do that is the goal of a new book from Novalis titled Here With Us: A Parish Guide to Serving People with Dementia.

“Parishes are aging, and there is an increasing number of people struggling with health issues like dementia,” said Joseph Sinasac, publishing director at Novalis, the publishing house of the Roman Catholic Church in Canada.

“We wanted to publish something simple and easy to put into practice for parishes dealing with people with dementia.”

For author Michael Swan, the book is a call to churches to take this issue seriously.

“This going to be a growing burden on governments, health care, and churches,” said Swan, who is also a reporter at the Catholic Register. “It’s something we have to face as a whole society.”

He is particularly interested in how churches and other faith groups can support people with dementia — and their caregivers.

“People with dementia are cared for by spouses, children and siblings who have their own needs and vulnerabilities,” he said. “They face it alone most of the time, and are often stretched and stressed.”

Places of worship can help by things like driving people to appointments, providing respite, delivering meals, or organizing support groups. “Or just taking time to listen,” he said.

Another option might be parish nursing, where places of worship hire a medical professional, often someone recently retired, to work part-time to attend to the needs of elderly parishioners and other vulnerable people.

Swan realizes attending to the needs of people with dementia can be a stretch for many parishes, which are “just barely keeping it together” financially and in other ways. “But it is something they have to do.”

After all, he said, “if a parish isn’t there for its own members, and also to show care for the world, then it is a meaningless social club with an ornate clubhouse. This is what it means to be Christian, looking after the sick and vulnerable.”

Chapters in the book focus on why Christians should care; ways to acknowledge parishioners with dementia; how to make your place of worship dementia-ready; how to offer liturgy that promotes caring; serving caregivers of people with dementia; and palliative care.

One issue that comes up with this issue is MAID; with more Canadians saying they want the option of ending their lives if they are diagnosed with dementia, any faith group that opposes MAID needs to do more than tell the government about their objections, Swan said — they create services and ministries for people facing the disease as well in order to make that option a less appealing option.

In the book Swan quotes Matt Dineen, a Roman Catholic in Ottawa whose wife has dementia.

When he takes her to mass, she can sometimes be a bit disruptive — standing when everyone else is kneeling or vocalizing in response to what’s happening around her.

Dineen has just about had it with the looks his family gets from others up and down the pew. “I just wish the people around would say ‘OK, she has dementia,’ and that they would be fine with that,” he said. “I would like to see dementia-friendly masses. I know that’s probably a way off.”

Stories like that are the ones Swan wants to highlight as a way to underline the “urgency” of the situation.

“The numbers of people with dementia are going to grow over the next decade,” he said. “We need to talk about the role of the church, how we welcome and serve people no matter what their limitations are.”

Those looking for medical information about dementia in the book won’t find it, he said.

“I’m not a doctor. You won’t learn about the biochemistry of the disease in the book. But you will learn something about how a Christian community should respond to people with dementia. This book is for those who want to put their faith into action, so the church can be a caring community and include those who Christ includes.”

Nobody is asking parishes to solve society’s looming dementia crisis, Swan said. “But parishes cannot sit this out, hoping somebody else solves it. They must play their part.”

faith@freepress.mb.ca

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