BLUE ASH, Ohio — Veronica Sterling dumps out a box of silverware and scatters puzzle pieces on a table. In the room, there are red and blue lights reflecting off the windows. Sirens blare out of a speaker. Nearby, there are a dozen headphones and glasses and gloves.
It’s all part of new training for first responders.
"I'm going to transform them into a person that has dementia,” said Sterling, CEO of Hospice of Southwest Ohio.
She starts to demonstrate, putting on glasses and headphones. She quickly takes her headphones off.
"I can't keep them on,” she said laughing. “I can't focus.”
That’s the idea. Because living with dementia can make simple tasks almost impossible.
“Your brain is not processing the information it’s receiving,” Sterling said. “This can’t be corrected by a new prescription or procedure.”
One by one, she tells people to stack cups and button shirts before hanging them up.
"I've been a police officer for 31 years,” said Chris Perry, an officer with the Amberley Village Police Department. “And I never had any type of dementia training."
Now, Perry’s trying to change that. He’s pushing for more training for more officers in the region.
"I want this to be mandatory," he said. “It has to be. It's affecting everybody.”
At its most basic level, this training is about empathy. Because more than 6 million Americans live with some form of the disease. And by 2050, that number is expected to almost double.
“It’s everywhere, people just don’t have that awareness,” said Dayna Ritchey, program director for the Alzheimer’s Association of Greater Cincinnati. “Your biggest risk factor is actually your age.”
And that’s why Perry’s here. His entire job centers around helping older adults in Amberley Village. But he knows he can’t be the only one. Because he knows the toll dementia takes on people.
"She’d get in the car, and she was going to go to Kenwood. She'd end up in southern Boone County,” Perry said. “And she'd have no idea where she was."
Perry’s talking about his mother, who died from dementia in 2018. He shares her story now in hopes of improving the care provided to those facing a disease that has no cure.
“Their body is there, but their mind is not,” he said. “And that’s a lot to process.”
Near the end, Perry’s mom stole salt and pepper shakers from restaurants. She thought they were hers.
In a room next to Perry, a crisis intervention program director went through the interactive part of the training. It took Beth Roach less than 10 minutes to button a shirt, tie a pair of shoes and fill a dog bowl up with food.
Except no one told her to feed the dog.
“It’s overwhelming,” Roach said. “We try to imagine what it would be like, but to actually have this physical experience was really helpful."
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The Alzheimer’s Association has a 24/7 hotline: 800-272-3900
