Building a dementia-friendly future

Dementia Action Week is from 16 – 22 September and this year’s theme is “Act now for a dementia-friendly future.”

The idea is that communities across Australia will start to take action to make their community more inclusive and supportive for people impacted by dementia.

What does a dementia friendly community look like?

A dementia-friendly community is place where people with dementia are understood, respected and supported. Communities may be as broad as a town or city, or may be smaller such as a social, sporting, recreational, or faith-based community group.

Dementia Australia describe:

“People living with dementia are at the heart of all dementia-friendly communities, sharing their experiences to help create an inclusive community for all.”

Engagement of people living with dementia is key to understand their needs to create inclusive and supportive environments.

Dementia-friendly Kiama

Kiama is a seaside community in NSW that started working towards becoming dementia-friendly ten years ago. Kiama is popular with retirees as a place to live out their senior years due to its attractive coastal location, village atmosphere and relative access to cities (Wollongong and Sydney) via a road and railway corridor. The larger Kiama State Electorate has a population of 69,000 people.

Due to the ageing demographic profile of the region, the number of people living with dementia in the State Electorate is projected to increase from the current 1200 to almost 4000 by 2050.

Back in 2014, Kiama Council was already working towards becoming an aged-friendly city and had a strong history of community engagement. This provided a strong foundation around which to engage community members and groups to support the Dementia Friendly Kiama project.

The project was conducted via a partnership between the University of Wollongong, the Kiama Municipal Council, the Kiama community and Dementia Australia.

The initial aims of the Dementia Friendly Kiama project included:

Increase community awareness and understanding of dementia
Provide new opportunities for social participation and involvement in the community for people with dementia including volunteering, participation in clubs and groups
Support organisations to become dementia-friendly and train staff to better communicate with people who have dementia
Improve the physical environment in the community, including improved signage.

The project has since grown to become Dementia Inclusive Kiama and is now auspiced by Gerringong Rotary.

Celebrating their 10th anniversary this year, Dementia Inclusive Kiama describe their work as identifying barriers and strengths for people living with dementia within the Kiama LGA, and then identifying strategies to address the barriers and mobilize the strengths.

By doing this, they support people with dementia to live a high quality of life with meaning, purpose and value.

They acknowledge, by making Kiama a dementia-inclusive community, they are often also addressing the needs of many others in the region, including older people and those living with a disability.

The range of dementia-friendly activities taking place in Kiama has varied over the years from physical audits and mapping of dementia-friendly places and spaces, through to businesses becoming more dementia-friendly. Many socially inclusive activities continue to bring joy for people in the Kiama region including:

Monthly social gatherings/picnics (Dementia Inclusive Groups or DIGs)
Dementia inclusive dancing program
Alchemy Chorus (Dementia-friendly choir)
The annual Bondi2Berry bike ride
Dementia education sessions
Men’s shed
New monthly dementia cafe at Barroul.

To find out more, visit the D ementia Inclusive Kiama website.

To find out more and take action to make your community or social group/club dementia-friendly, visit Dementia Australia. They offer a range of resources to help you including: