Making churches more welcoming for members with dementia: ‘ We don’t want them to think they’re forgotten.’
Annie Dixon has gone to Peters Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Columbus, Georgia, her whole life. Her mother went there, so did her grandmother. And her chicken salad was the talk of the congregation, a guaranteed sellout at church fundraisers.
But this Sunday morning, Dixon doesn’t want to go to the small brick building across from Family Dollar. At least that’s what she says over the phone to her daughter Tanya Dixon, whom she has hung up on a couple of times already. Her daughter is not surprised; she describes her mother’s personality as “straight shot, no chaser.”
Peters Chapel is one of 50 Alter partners across the country. Pew by pew, they’re bringing older people back to Christian congregations where they were once familiar faces, or making sure parishioners like Annie Dixon stay. There are dementia-related pamphlets on a table in the chapel’s foyer, with more materials on a bookshelf inside. Dixon is greeted by two ushers wearing name tags if she needs assistance.
“It’s important the congregation recognizes she has these needs, because if they didn’t, they might be treating her a little bit differently. I don’t want anyone to get agitated if she’s asking the same thing 10 times,” said Tanya Dixon. “Everyone now better understands how to approach her.”
As life expectancy increases, the number of people living with Alzheimer’s and other dementias is expected to double by 2050 in the U.S. For Black Americans, who already are about twice as likely as white Americans to have dementia, the trend is even more alarming. And in Georgia, where the older adult population is growing at a greater rate than it is in the rest of the country and deaths by Alzheimer’s outpaces the national average, dementia is a looming threat.
Nurse scientist Fayron Epps founded Alter four years ago to meet the coming moment. Her goal is to keep people living with dementia connected to their faith and community, as well as increase early detection and participation in research — where Black participants have been egregiously missing from many clinical trials.
“I’m partnering with the most trusted institution in many Black communities: the church,” said Epps, a registered nurse and an associate professor at Emory University’s nursing school. “My hope is that parishioners will not just sit in the pew with their problems, but feel comfortable bringing any dementia-related and brain health concerns to their faith leader.”
