Did you know that dementia is one of the fastest growing conditions in Australia with the incidence expected to continue to rise? I didn’t until yesterday. And did you know that dementia is the second leading cause of death in Australia? That surprised me too. These statistics (and others) are available on the Alzheimers Australia website at https://www.fightdementia.org.au/about-dementia/health-professionals/dementia-the-essentials/dementia-statistics-and-epidemiology .
Yesterday I attended an excellent 3-hour workshop, Enabling Edie, run by Alzheimers Australia -
www.fightdementia.org.au. The other attendees included professionals working in the field as well as lay people with a personal interest in learning more because of their involvement with a friend or relative with dementia.
If, like me, you are a therapist, you will probably enjoy and learn from the experience and find that it adds to your toolbox of information and strategies that can be useful to your clients who have a partner or family member recently diagnosed. (The word is that early diagnosis is a good thing because it enables a wide range of supportive resources to be marshalled and put in place successfully to ensure an optimal quality of life for both the person diagnosed and their family members who will most surely be affected by the condition.)
The workshop was highly interactive and centred round the clever use of virtual reality goggles and headphones. I don’t want to spoil the fun so I won’t say exactly what the virtual reality experience involved except that, wearing the goggles, you are put in the position of a person with dementia and get two separate ‘immersions’; with discussion in between on the interpretation of the data and what action can be taken to improve the quality of life of those involved.
I learned a lot about dementia and how to think about it in a short space of time. The facilitator was highly knowledgeable and encouraged asking questions and sharing experiences. This meant that our learning went far deeper than a few lists of dos and don’ts. The variety of our participant backgrounds also made for a richly layered tapestry.
Visit the website now - www.fightdementia.org.au - and see for yourself the wide variety of resources and events Australia wide that are currently available.
Then call the National Dementia Helpline on 1800 100 500 for answers to your further questions or to enquire about volunteer opportunities.
Did you know that dementia is one of the fastest growing conditions in Australia with the incidence expected to continue to rise? I didn’t until yesterday. And did you know that dementia is the second leading cause of death in Australia? That surprised me too. These statistics (and others) are available on the Alzheimers Australia website at https://www.fightdementia.org.au/about-dementia/health-professionals/dementia-the-essentials/dementia-statistics-and-epidemiology .
Yesterday I attended an excellent 3-hour workshop, Enabling Edie, run by Alzheimers Australia -
www.fightdementia.org.au. The other attendees included professionals working in the field as well as lay people with a personal interest in learning more because of their involvement with a friend or relative with dementia.
If, like me, you are a therapist, you will probably enjoy and learn from the experience and find that it adds to your toolbox of information and strategies that can be useful to your clients who have a partner or family member recently diagnosed. (The word is that early diagnosis is a good thing because it enables a wide range of supportive resources to be marshalled and put in place successfully to ensure an optimal quality of life for both the person diagnosed and their family members who will most surely be affected by the condition.)
The workshop was highly interactive and centred round the clever use of virtual reality goggles and headphones. I don’t want to spoil the fun so I won’t say exactly what the virtual reality experience involved except that, wearing the goggles, you are put in the position of a person with dementia and get two separate ‘immersions’; with discussion in between on the interpretation of the data and what action can be taken to improve the quality of life of those involved.
I learned a lot about dementia and how to think about it in a short space of time. The facilitator was highly knowledgeable and encouraged asking questions and sharing experiences. This meant that our learning went far deeper than a few lists of dos and don’ts. The variety of our participant backgrounds also made for a richly layered tapestry.
Visit the website now - www.fightdementia.org.au - and see for yourself the wide variety of resources and events Australia wide that are currently available.
Then call the National Dementia Helpline on 1800 100 500 for answers to your further questions or to enquire about volunteer opportunities.