The City of Vernon has developed an Age and Dementia Friendly Community Plan to ensure the needs of older adults, people living with dementia, and their care partners are understood and accommodated as our community grows.
The Plan, endorsed by City Council on June 24, 2024, will be integrated into the City’s policies, including the Official Community Plan (OCP). This ensures improved accessibility for aging populations, persons living with dementia, and other community members with diverse needs.
What is an Age and Dementia Friendly Community?
It’s a place where older adults and people living with dementia and their care partners are respected, included and supported to participate as active community members. This means creating social spaces that are welcoming and public places that are accessible.
Not every older adult develops dementia and not every person diagnosed with dementia is an older adult, however, both aging and living with dementia share common challenges with inclusion and accessibility and that is why this Plan contains strategies and actions for both.
“We understand that the journey toward making Vernon an age and dementia-friendly community is ongoing,” said Mayor Victor Cumming. “It requires continuous effort, adaptation, and, most importantly, listening to the voices of others. Their feedback and insights are invaluable in shaping our policies, initiatives and infrastructure projects. Together, we can ensure that Vernon remains a place where those with challenges feel valued, respected, and supported.”
“What we put in place for seniors today, we put in place for ourselves tomorrow,” said Barbara Everdene, Project Lead, Long Range Planner. “This plan helps build a community that provides more dignity, safety, and accessibility for all of our community members living with accessibility needs.”
Work on this plan began in 2019 when the Vernon Seniors Action Network (VSAN) established an Age and Dementia Friendly Committee. With support from VSAN, the City obtained a $25,000 grant from BC Healthy Communities (BCHC) and a $184,710 grant from the Public Health Agency of Canada’s Dementia Strategic Fund for the project.
“We’re excited to see this community Age and Dementia-Friendly Action Plan help Vernon protect the most vulnerable seniors in their community,” said Alyssa Roehirch, BCHC Age-Friendly Delivery Lead.
The second grant enabled the City to design and deliver an innovative, first-of-its-kind municipal project in Canada, in fulfilment of the federal National Dementia Strategy and the internationally recognized Dementia Friendly Community movement.
Throughout this project, the City has created content to help build awareness towards cultivating a more dementia friendly community, including two mini-documentaries and a five-part animated series. All content is available for the community on vernon.ca/dementiafriendly.
The City of Vernon would like to thank its funders for making this important work possible. The City also thanks all the valuable contributions of our project partners: the Vernon Seniors Action Network (VSAN) and the Shuswap North Okanagan Division of Family Practice; Nexus BC; Interior Health Authority; Simon Fraser University’s Department of Gerontology; UBC’s Institute of Healthy Living and Chronic Disease Prevention; and, Alzheimer Society of BC.
To view the City of Vernon’s Age-Friendly Dementia Action Plan and project deliverables, visit vernon.ca/dementiafriendly.