Let’s Think About Life with Dementia #6 Finding Better Living Environments Through Walking: An Initiative by AARP

 During my stay in the U.S., I had an opportunity to attend a lecture by an AARP representative.

 AARP is a national organization to support and advocate for seniors, aiming to protect their lives and rights. I was impressed to learn that their work extends beyond service delivery, with strong advocacy efforts focusing on “what kind of society we like to live in.”

The organization was founded by Ethel Percy Andrus, whose favorite saying was, “To serve, not to be served.” This philosophy seems to reflect the view on seniors as people who continue to play an active role in society, rather than those receiving support. Founded on this philosophy, AARP develops a variety of activities, ranging from vigorous advocacy for seniors’ rights to grassroots activities to enrich local communities.

In this blog, I would like to share with you one of their initiatives called AARP Livable Communities. It is based on the idea that age-friendly communities will lead to great places for people of all ages to live in. We can support people’s daily life by accumulating small efforts for better environments, such as walkable streets, safe crosswalks, and places to easily take a rest.

Among various programs conducted as part of this initiative, I found AARP Walk Audit particularly interesting. In this program, residents themselves walk around the community to assess the safety of sidewalks, user-friendliness of crosswalks, visibility of streets, availability of places to take a break, and more. What is unique about this program is that it involves not only experts but also people actually living there in reviewing their communities from their own perspectives.

While listening to the lecture, my thoughts went to the daily life of people with dementia. For example, everyone finds it difficult when streets are hard to navigate and cross, and with no places to take a rest along the way. But for people living with dementia, these challenges may become reasons to stop going out.

When considering daily life of people with dementia, we tend to focus on medical and long-term care. But community environments, where they spend time every day, should also have a significant role in their lives. The beauty of Walk Audit is that even without special knowledge, people can assess the livability of their communities through the act of "taking a walk." If opportunities are available for people with dementia, their families, and neighbors to walk together in the community, they should be able to find what they have never noticed, such as what is inconvenient and what can be improved. Japan is also gradually making progress in developing dementia-friendly communities.

Initiatives have been spreading across Japan for people to connect with each other in the community, including dementia cafés. In addition to creating these places, we can also incorporate the idea of reviewing the community itself, which should give us a hint in making life easier for people with dementia.

Walk Audit by AARP involves no special skills or knowledge. The program finds opportunity in walking, something we do every day, as a tool to review and improve our communities. That is what makes it significant. When exploring how people with dementia can continue to live in the familiar environment, we may be able to find something to improve, no matter how small it is, by walking in their communities. The accumulation of these insights may play a greater role in the future.

AARP’s Walk Audit Tool Kit is available on the following website:

https://www.aarp.org/livable-communities/getting-around/aarp-walk-audit-tool-kit.html

Taeko Nakashima

Faculty of Health Management　Department of Social Health and Business Management

Nihon Fukushi University

https://www.nfu.ne.jp/ (in Japanese)