The Review Magazine Summer 2025

Saline’s Guide to Becoming Dementia Friendly SALINE pop. 8,948

By Emily Landau Jim and Kathleen Mangi were married for 49 years. Environmental scientists and college sweethearts, they lived and worked all over the country: Alabama, New York, North Carolina, Washington, and Virginia. When Kathleen was still in her 50s, she developed younger-onset Alzheimer’s disease. For a few years after her diagnosis, the Mangis remained active in their Northern Virginia community, facing mixed experiences when they went out into public. Eventually, they relocated to Saline, a city of about nine thousand in Washtenaw County, to be closer to their adult daughter, Charlene, who lives 10 miles north in Ann Arbor. In Saline, the Mangis lived in a supportive senior community and Kathleen transitioned to professional memory care. With more time and support, Jim Mangi turned his focus outward. "That gave me the bandwidth to look back and say, Okay, here I am. What can I do to help somebody else?” To begin, Mangi offered a public lecture series about dementia and caregiving, free and open to all. "That ran for eight Wednesday nights, and got a consistent crowd of about 50 people,” said Mangi. “That told us there was a lot of interest in this subject of dementia and caregiving.” The basics are worth noting: In Washtenaw County alone, there are over fifty thousand seniors. Ten percent of seniors have a form of dementia, including Alzheimer’s. A person with dementia lives an average of eight years following their diagnosis. The vast majority of people with dementia live at home, either alone or with care partners.

Mangi had the sense that the interest generated at his lectures could be

channeled into something. Drawing on his experience with Kathleen as well as national models from the D.C.-based nonprofit Dementia Friendly America, he initiated informal conversations with City officials, senior care workers, and his pastor. He presented a proposal, titled “Envisioning a Dementia Friendly Community,” laying out the vision of what a dementia friendly community looks like. It included simple best practices for assisting people with dementia in a wide variety of contexts: libraries, home inspections, and policing. Saline Mayor Brian Marl was there. “At the end of my presentation, Brian stood right up and said, ‘Yes. We should do that,’” said Mangi, with a smile. The City of Saline soon issued a formal proclamation and invited Mangi’s group to provide dementia awareness training to Saline's municipal workforce. “I want everybody to feel embraced, comfortable, and safe in the Saline community,” Marl said. “That’s my standard since I was sworn in as mayor in January of 2013.” That early municipal support helped establish what would become Dementia Friendly Saline (DFS), now operating as Dementia Friendly Services (“to suggest that we are not just limited to the lovely city of Saline,” says Mangi). DFS has grown from a volunteer-led initiative to a part-time staff of six, and now offers education and programming to a range of sectors in the Saline community. One of the original lecture titles has become something of a mantra for Mangi and DFS: It’s a disease, not a disgrace.

“ I want everybody to feel embraced, comfortable, and safe in the Saline community. ”

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