By Katie Zeitler, MBWC
Dementia Friends wrapped up 2025 having reached over 6,000 individuals across the state through one-hour public awareness sessions, known as Dementia Friends Information Sessions. This is the third exciting numbers milestone that 2025 brought for the program; 4,000 Dementia Friends were reached in February at a session with the UW School of Informatics/Team Aegeliss in King County and 5,000 were reached in the fall of this year at a session offered by HOPE Dementia Support for The Quarry. Officially, Dementia Friends WA recruited 2,512 new Dementia Friends in 2025, bringing the official total to 6,184 by the end of the calendar year. The session that helped push us past 6,000 was through Washington Home and Community Services.
Benton Franklin Health District staff
A Dementia Friend is anyone who attends a one-hour information session to gain awareness about dementia and then takes action to foster dementia-friendly communities.
The top five action items (based on Dementia Friends who completed an optional evaluation form at a session) in 2025 are as follows:
- Adopt one or more dementia-friendly practices in my personal or professional life
- Carry out a personal action item (e.g. being more patient when out in my community)
- Support dementia-friendly efforts in my community
- Get in touch and stay in touch with someone I know living with dementia
- Ask my doctor for a cognitive assessment during my annual physical exam
6 new counties joined as Regional Partner Organizations this year, including Homage in Snohomish County, Lewis-Mason-Thurston Area Agency on Aging, and the Olympic Area Agency on Aging, expanding into Kitsap County. 142 sessions were held across the state, with the top three session location categories being libraries (36), community centers (27), and non-profit organizations (21). Dementia Friends WA has 89 active Champions, or trained volunteers, who deliver Dementia Friends Information Sessions in their communities across the state.
A Dementia Friends Spanish session
The year also brought important partnerships to translate updated curriculum materials into four languages. Dementia Friends WA now has session materials available to use in Mandarin (with support from Kin On), Spanish (with support from the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center and deTornyay Center for Healthy Aging), Russian (with support from social work practicum student Anastacia Kakorin at the Memory Hub), and Vietnamese (with support from Kim Lundgreen and Asmeret Tesfalem at the Harborview Cultural Mediator program, Anh Dao, and Kris Ma, PhD, UW Assistant Profession at Department of Family Medicine).
Working with students has been a privilege in 2025. At the beginning of the year, three UW Doctor of Nursing Practice students, Sera Madsen, Jess Cochran, and Jessica Kikulta, assisted in creating surveys for our volunteers and in developing a toolkit to reach rural faith communities. Currently, UW Doctor of Nursing Practice student, Erika Gutierrez, and MSW Practicum Student at the Memory Hub, Jamie Bird, are evaluating and piloting the 3-5th-grade Dementia Friends Youth Curriculum developed by former MSW Practicum Student at the Memory Hub, Sarah Pfeiffer. 2026 will bring opportunities to pilot this youth adaptation.
Dementia Friends WA is grateful for the support from the UW Memory and Brain Wellness Center, Dementia Action Collaborative, and the Dementia Friends WA Advisory Council. In 2026, Dementia Friends aims to continue expanding the program statewide and reach new Dementia Friends!
