A Montana State University professor is rolling around western Montana in a traveling bus that brings dementia education and awareness to rural communities.
“Our rural communities are aging,” said Professor Daniel Koltz.
Koltz is a Gerontology professor at MSU. He has started a new project, the Mobile Memory Cafe, a classroom on wheels that educates Montana communities about dementia and the importance of addressing it.
“The most significant issue that people bring up is, 'I don’t wanna know if I have dementia,' or 'I don’t want to know if I have Alzheimer's,' and the issue that they are unaware of is that there are things that individuals can do to delay the onset of dementia,” said Koltz.
Koltz interacts with community members through hands-on activities and provides resources to help people with dementia improve their well-being.
He said, “The individuals with dementia can also learn how to communicate with their partners and actually re-engage with the community.”
The mobile memory cafe is working to cast dementia in a more positive light.
“It's not a life or death sentence that has to be looked at negatively, but we can live well with it,” said Koltz.
