Dementia Friendly Travel: Airport Stories Survey

Dementia Friendly Survey Memory Cafe Directory

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Share Your Traveling Stories to Help Others

Dementia Friendly Travel

Memory Cafe participants know the importance of being active outside the home. Isolation isn’t any fun, nor is it healthy. Seeing, doing, and enjoying is why you attend Memory Cafes. No one needs to tell you that extending the concept of “outside the home” to the more ambitious activity of “traveling” takes the challenge to a new level. Dementia Friendly Travel is our focus.

Dementia Friendly Travel is Tough

Planning to be away. Making sure bills are paid. Packing. Getting to the airport in time. Parking. Checking in. Getting through Security. Waiting at the gate. The discomfort continues on and on. Now, add the considerations necessary to support a loved one with Dementia, and the challenges intensify.

With early- to mid-level Dementia, travel is manageable (albeit a lot of work!) and is encouraged. Remember where we started by being active outside the home? Here’s some great resources from the City of Roseville, Minnesota that can help all of us:



Now that you’re all organized, your own air travel experiences can help others.

Introducing Airport Stories Survey

Dementia Friendly Airport Survey

Courtesy Lori La Bey, Alzheimer’s Speaks

University of Minnesota Research

The University of Minnesota is conducting a survey to learn more about traveling. Specifically, air travel. More precisely, air travel for individuals living with Dementia along with their care partner.

The survey is available only until September 15, 2019!



Time is of the essence. Since we are in the throes of summer – and time will pass quickly, please don’t put it off!

Global Research Team: Dementia Friendly Travel

The Airport Stories Survey was developed by members of the Dementia-Friendly Airports Working Group. This is a collaboration of a wonderful collection of individuals:

  • Roseville Alzheimer’s & Dementia Community Action Team.
  • School of Public Health at the University of Minnesota.
  • Maria O’Reilly PhD, School of Health, Medical & Applied Sciences at Central Queensland University, Australia.

The Brisbane, Australia airport has a Dementia-friendly designation, so the collaboration with our Australian friends made perfect sense.

The Survey

Dementia Friendly Airport Survey

Click for a larger image

We’ve already established that airports are a challenging environment. The Airport Stories Survey is intended to identify ways to improve them. It starts with learning from you.

Anonymously.



The survey should take about 20 minutes and includes easy check-boxes and short answers. You will be asked about your recent flight history, booking a flight, moving in the airport, security, boarding, in the air, arrival, and miscellaneous questions.

Questions about how the survey information will be used and access to results should be addressed to DementiaFriendlyAirports@gmail.com.

Hat Tip to Lori La Bey

Lori La Bey of Alzheimer’s Speaks is a dear friend of Memory Cafe Directory. Her advice and guidance has and continues to be very helpful to the success of the Directory. I’d like to extend my appreciation to her for bringing the Airport Stories Survey to my attention. She also provided some great travel resources that I could share with you. Thank you, Lori!

You can learn more about Lori’s work at her website, Alzheimers Speaks and much more about the survey.

Don’t Put it Off

September 15 will come fast! Please carve out about 20 minutes as soon as possible to share your travel experiences. Many will benefit from your input.


Final Thoughts

After learning more about the Airport Stories Survey to publish the above article, I was fascinated about the challenges surrounding Dementia Travel. While air travel is a significant component of how we get around, travel by car is likely more prevalent.

Alzheimers Trippin' with George by Susan Straley Memory Cafe Directory

Available on Amazon

I stumbled across this book, “Alzheimer’s Trippin’ with George: Diagnosis to Discovery in 10,000 miles” and was immediately captivated. What better way to fill our senses with the world around us than a 10k mile road trip?

(An I really want it to be in that convertible!)

As an extra benefit to this book, author Susan Straley indicates a portion of the sale of each book is donated to Alzheimer’s Research and/or Caregiver Assistance. Thank you!

There are plenty of pictures to help tell the story, which is perfect for a “road trip” book!

Enjoy the trip!

Dave Wiederrich
Memory Cafe Directory






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