DEMENTIA FRIENDLY CHAPEL TOOLKIT VOL. 1 NOW AVAILABLE

Dementia Friendly Fort Worth is pleased to offer a resource for faith communities, care communities, and others wanting to offer a dementia friendly chapel service.  The Toolkit is designed to be a ready-to-use resource for faith communities and organizations of all sizes.

Care has been taken to include hymns that are available in the public domain.  If we have made mistakes, please contact us so that corrections can be made.

The DEMENTIA FRIENDLY CHAPEL TOOLKIT, VOLUME 1″ is available for download.  There is no charge, but donations (button below) would be gratefully received to support the ministry of Dementia Friendly Fort Worth.


DONATE HERE

Click here to download the Dementia Friendly Chapel Toolkit

DEMENTIA FRIENDLY CHAPEL TOOKLKIT

The TOOLKIT contains:

A brief history of our experience along with lessons learned and suggestions for starting your own chapel service.

Orders of Service for 12 weekly services.

Hymn texts ready to print.

Music for each of the hymns included in the orders of service.

Watch our Dementia Friendly Chapel Service.

Live Sundays at 2 pm on Sundays and 10:00 am on Wednesday.  Click HERE.

No sermon or offering, just prayer, Scripture, and old familiar hymns.

Click HERE to watch previous services.

THINGS WE CAN DO 

(TO BE IN MINISTRY WITH/BY/FOR OLDER ADULTS)

WEBINAR SERIES

This new webinar series  focuses on ways churches can be in ministry to/with/for Older Adults and Boomers.

These webinars were recorded and are available for viewing HERE.

ALZHEIMER’S AND DEMENTIA: MINISTERING WITH THE FORGOTTEN

In 2009, someone was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s or another form of dementia every 77 seconds.

Today, someone is diagnosed every 65 seconds. And the number is escalating.

In 2050, it will be one person every 33 seconds.

For retired United Methodist Bishop Kenneth Carder, the statistics are personal. His wife, Linda, was diagnosed with frontal temporal dementia and he was called into a new vocation—that of caregiver for Linda.

Out of that experience, Bishop Carder felt led to create a five-part study, Alzheimer’s/Dementia: Ministry with the Forgotten, (free downloadable videos and leader’s guide are available below) because he wanted to help start conversations within United Methodist congregations and generate action around caring for people who have a form of dementia as well as their caregivers.

FREE videos and downloadable leader’s guide are available.   Click on the resources below.

Alzheimer’s/Dementia: Ministry with the Forgotten

Downloadable Session Videos:

Session 1 Dementia Care: A New Vocation

Session 2 More Than Our Memories

Session 3 Created in God’s Image: Identity in Community

Session 4 Responding in Love

Session 5 Burden Bearing: Our Gift

Companion Resources

Leader’s Guide PDF for download

Large Print Leader Guide PDF for Download

DEMENTIA AND THE CHURCH

The United Methodist Church offers webinars providing information to faith communities, care partners, and persons living with dementia to offer spiritual support and education.  Watch these recorded webinars on your schedule.

5 Things You Need to Know about Dementia from a Faith Perspective

5 Things a Caregiver of Faith Needs to Know About Dementia

Being a Good Visitor to Someone With Dementia

Ministering to Individuals with Early Dementia

Tools for Connecting with People Living with Dementia when Behaviors are Challenging

Normal vs Not Normal Aging and Keys to Connecting to Someone Living with Dementia

Clergy Against Alzheimer’s/Faith United Against Alzheimer’s.

The ClergyAgainstAlzheimer’s Network and FaithUnitedAgainstAlzheimer’s Coalition are diverse, interfaith national communities of clergy, other faith leaders, laity, and organizations advocating for dementia friendly faith communities across the country and demanding action to stop Alzheimer’s. 

Clergy Network and Faith Coalition members believe that living with value and purpose is a human right. To that end, we promote dignity, compassionate care, and quality of life for those living with dementia and their families, as we work together to stop Alzheimer’s by 2020. The Clergy Network brings together faith leaders and people of faith, while the Faith Coalition includes faith- or denomination-based organizations and Alzheimer’s agencies working with community faith leaders.

Our communities are welcoming to those living with dementia and their families, and take steps to enable worship, support care partners, educate about dementia, and promote brain health.  Click HERE to LEARN MORE

Recorded webinar: Dementia Friendly African American Congregations.  View this recorded session hosted by Us Against Alzheimer’s.   Click here to view.  Speakers: 

Mia Chester, Alter Program (moderator)
Stephanie Craddock, First Mount Zion Baptist Church, Dumfries, VA;
Dr. Fayron Epps, Alter Program|Emory University;
Stephanie Monroe, African Americans Against Alzheimer’s Network;
Pamela Price, The Balm In Gilead;
Dr. Flavia Batteau Walton, Dementia Friendly America Prince George’s County, MD.

PUBLICATIONS

Ministering to Families Facing Alzheimer’s and Related Dementias:  How Do We Begin?                                                       

The Power of Faith in Dementia

When Church Members Become Homebound 

Creating Dementia Friendly Faith Communities

Indispensable Parts of the Whole: Disabilities and the Church

 Dementia Friendly Chanukah

My Faith Matters       

Dementia Friendly Church Resource Pack  

Purple Power Worship

RESOURCES FOR AFRICAN AMERICAN CHURCHES

MEMORY SUNDAY TOOLKIT

MEMORY SUNDAY PARTNER GUIDE

THE BALM in GILEAD BOOK of ALZHEIMER’S for AFRICAN AMERICAN CONGREGATIONS

___________________________________________________________________________

 

Visit this great website for information on the Alter Program: Creating Dementia Friendly Congregations; Inspiring and Equipping Faith Communities.  CLICK HERE TO VISIT

African American Community Focused

Organized by African American health professionals to build resources and awareness around dementia in African American and faith communities.

Support Tailored for Churches

We partner with churches to develop a supportive environment that enhances the well-being of African American families affected by dementia.  Complimentary Services:

Complimentary Services

The Alter program works closely with churches to sustain dementia-friendly initiatives. This program offers support and services at no cost.

Click HERE to view a video with Dr. Fayron Epps discussing ALTER and African American faith communities.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

BOOKS

Dementia diseases represent a crisis of faith for many family members and congregations. Magnifying this crisis is the way people with dementia tend to be objectified by both medical and religious communities. They are recipients of treatment and projects for mission. Ministry is done to and for them rather than with them.  

While acknowledging the devastation of dementia diseases, Ken Carder draws on his own experience as a caregiver, hospice chaplain, and pastoral practitioner to portray the gifts as well as the challenges accompanying dementia diseases. He confronts the deep personal and theological questions created by loving people with dementia diseases, demonstrating how living with dementia can be a means of growing in faith, wholeness, and ministry for the entire community of faith. He also reveals that authentic faith transcends intellectual beliefs, verbal affirmations, and prescribed practices. Carder asserts that the Judeo-Christian tradition offers a broader lens, defining personhood in relationship to God’s story and humanity’s participation in God’s mighty acts of creation and new creation; thereby contributing to hope, community, and self-worth.

Pastors and congregations will be better equipped to minister with people affected by dementia, receiving their gifts and responding to their unique needs. They will learn how people with dementia contribute to the community and the church’s life and mission, discovering practical ways those contributions can be identified, nurtured, and incorporated into the church’s life and ministry.

Ministry with the Forgotten, available on Amazon.

Religious faith is a powerful source of comfort and support for individuals and families facing dementia. Many faith leaders need help in adapting their ministries to address the worship/spiritual needs of this group. A product of Faith United Against Alzheimer’s, this handbook by 45 different authors represents diverse faith traditions, including Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Sikhism, Buddhism and Native American. It provides practical help in developing services and creating dementia friendly faith communities.

It gives an understanding of the cognitive, communicative and physical abilities of people with dementia and shows what chaplains, clergy and lay persons can do to engage them through worship. Included are several articles by persons living with dementia.

Dementia Friendly Worship, available on Amazon.

Spirituality in Dementia Care (DVD)

Have you struggled to meet the spiritual needs of a family member living with dementia?

Do you run a faith-based organization and would like to know how to best help a person living with dementia and their family stay connected to their community of faith?

Learn with dementia expert Teepa Snow and Rev. Linn Possell about basic spiritual needs throughout life, what may or may not change when someone is living with dementia, and how to best meet those needs.

Learn:

  • which spiritual needs remain when a person is in the midst of brain change
  • how to connect with the spirit of someone living with dementia to create a soul-to-soul relationship
  • how to help family members better manage feelings of guilt, sadness, or grief
  • how to offer the highest quality of life by focusing on what the person living with dementia is still able to do

DVD Features:

  • Over five hours of information, tips, and techniques
  • link to a downloadable handout, so you can easily recall the learned information

Click here to access on Teepa Snow’s website

Winner of the 2015 Caregiver Friendly Award, Seasons of Caring offers the gifts of hope, encouragement, compassion and empathy to those on the difficult journey of caring for loved ones with Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias.

The book is organized around themes and metaphors of seasonal transition, with each of the four seasons paralleling the various stages of life. The 141 entries open with quotes from scripture, sacred text or other inspirational text. The original writings by seventy-two authors representing a great diversity of spiritual traditions range from thoughtful meditations to poignant personal stories, moving poems and meaningful songs. Each is followed by a prayer and words of comfort and encouragement.

The book is a product of the ClergyAgainstAlzheimer’s Network, an interfaith national network of clergy, laity, and faith organizations working to focus attention on improved treatment, better care and a cure for dementia. It’s also an educational tool for support groups and advocates. Inspiring and uplifting, Seasons of Caring champions the dignity of all those with Alzheimer’s and dementia, and is a powerful resource in raising awareness about this disease and helping to remove its stigma.

ClergyAgainstAlzheimer’s is a network of USAgainstAlzheimer’s.

For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven; a time to be born and a time to die…Ecclesiastes 3:1-2

Advance Care Planning is a gift to your loved ones as you face the time to die, whenever that comes.  Here are resources for exploring your beliefs and values, your wishes regarding end-of-life care, and making decisions about what you want or do not want in certain situations.
We encourage faith communities to offer Advance Directives Workshops to assist people to think through and act.

Here are some resources for Texas faith communities.

Five Wishes Leader’s Guide

Advance Directive Overview Handout

LivingWill

Medical Power of Attorney

Directive for Mental HealthTreatment

Conversation Guide for Loved Ones of People with Dementia

Dementia Directive

Out of Hospital Do Not Resuscitate Form

MOST form

talking-about-your-wishes

THE REALITY OF CPR FOR SENIORS

Facts About Funerals English