Photo courtesy of Bolder Creek Assisted Living Jan Mason, director of the Boulder Creek Assisted Living memory care facility, shared thoughts about dementia Tuesday evening during a candlelight vigil.

MARSHALL — Boulder Creek staff and family members of residents wanted to do something extra to generate awareness of dementia.

They held a candlelight vigil Tuesday evening under the front canopy in the parking lot. The event was attended by five different families, all of whom spoke about their loved one who lives at Boulder Creek.

Jan Mason, who directs the 32-unit Boulder Creek memory care facility, spoke to the group about her own experiences caring for her mother-in-law as she faced dementia.

“Dementia is personal for me,” Mason said. “With my mother-in-law, we didn’t have as much information as we can offer families now. We did the best we could. There are things we would have done differently had we known more about it.”

She said dementia-related memory loss was often misunderstood in the past. Many individuals and families lived in denial of dementia when someone was in the early stages.

“The traditional way to think about it was to consider it a normal part of the aging process,” she said. “When someone is diagnosed with dementia, it’s not normal. It’s a disease. We hope that there will someday be a cure.”

She added that people in later stages of dementia were sometimes thought of as insane. Only recently has the general public learned about how dementia is different from mental illness.

Educational efforts take place both at the national level and locally. Mason and her service dog, Jazzy, recently raised $1,121 through a walk-a-thon, all of which will go toward dementia awareness efforts in the Marshall area.

“There’s still a need for more education and research,” Mason said. “Just in the past week they came out with a new drug that can help to slow down the progression. It could help people with dementia hang onto their memory for longer amounts of time.”

She said family interaction is valuable, especially when relatives ask open ended questions instead of hoping that someone will remember details.

A key to helping people with dementia is to provide them with a home-like environment, one that includes the privacy of a personal room as well as opportunities to interact with neighbors and trained staff. A comfortable, relaxed atmosphere often leads to feelings of safety and security.

“It’s a challenge to care for someone with dementia,” Mason said. “It’s all about love for family and support among caregivers. I’m always amazed when I hear about the life history of our residents, about the accomplishments they made and how much they did as professionals, parents and grandparents. Now it’s our turn to care for them.”