 The Forest Forum is a newly launched undertaking to give people with dementia, their families, and other community members the opportunity to meet and mingle naturally by spending time together in the natural environment of Yamada Green Park (148.5ha) in Kitakyushu city.
On the day of the event, 1,426 city residents, including 179 people with dementia,
gathered to enjoy an autumn day. At the event site, a panel exhibit on dementia
was set up and a training course for “dementia supporters”, who assists people
with dementia and their families in the communities, held to enhance participants’
accurate understanding of dementia. Under a blue sky, participants freely joined
in such group activities as woodland hikes, paper making, open-air nursing care
classes, and a free market, according to their preferences.
 From
the planning stages people from all sectors cooperated in putting on the Forest
Forum, including environmental volunteers, welfare volunteers, ordinary citizens,
and people from nonprofits, schools, business, and government. Through this they
were able to discover a shared perspective on “community building” that transcends
their own sectors.
We are now working on compiling a manual that will make it possible to launch
a similar undertaking in any community. The manual will contain in a compact
format the information and materials needed to make the organization of such
an event practical in other communities.
 People
with dementia
At the event itself many people told us that ordinarily blank-faced
seniors began smiling as they came in contact with nature and with other people.
The patients themselves offered a variety of positive comments, remarking, “The
scenery here is so peaceful. And the air smells nice, too.” Everyone was amazed
at the forest’s “healing powers,” and at the end of the day not only the people
with dementia but the other participants as well felt the forest had given some
of its vitality to them.- Participants, residents
 Volunteers in the environmental and welfare fields were able to share their know-how
and collaborate rather than pigeon-holing dementia as a nursing or welfare issue.
As a result, environmental volunteers, welfare volunteers, ordinary citizens,
and people from nonprofits, schools, businesses, and government agencies brought
together what they had to offer and did what came naturally to them, and the
event proceeded smoothly.
We received requests to extend the event to a wider range of sites in the city as well. At the Forest Forum we made maximum use of people’s accustomed activities
and the community’s resources. The undertaking made everyone realize that community
resources can be found everywhere without doing anything special.
- The program is unique in that an environmental NPO worked together with
local government to hold it, escaping from the confines of the standard social
welfare model, and in the way it made use of a “forest” within an urban community.
- It was wonderful to see the way natural understanding and interaction with
people with dementia developed and the way participants brought out each another’s
strengths as people of all sorts-with dementia and without, adults, students,
and small children-met in the “forest” and felt its power together. We believe
that in this way community building will advance, slowly but surely.
- The program offers something new in its collaborative approach, bringing
together the know-how of administrators, professionals, and volunteers from the
environmental and welfare sectors.
- The program has nurtured broader partnerships between
different administrative offices and agencies, and it has contributed to administrators'
understanding of people with dementia and of the importance of community building
to support such people. In this sense it offers a model for local administration
throughout the country.
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