Keeping up to date: the latest in dementia resources
Short film for Italian-speaking clients challenges taboos; learning from overseas on dementia-friendly communities.
In this story:
- Short film for Italian-speaking clients challenges taboos
- Learning from overseas on dementia-friendly communities
Short film for Italian-speaking clients challenges taboos
A new resource has been launched for Italian communities designed to encourage acceptance of dementia as a medical condition, and not a normal part of ageing.
Susan McCarthy, the general manager of services at Alzheimer’s Australia NSW, said the short film addressed common myths and stigma around dementia and the importance for families to seek support.
Home care workers are encouraged to utilise the education resource with Italian-speaking clients and their families to improve their understanding of the condition.
The 22-minute video features carers of people living with dementia giving personal accounts of their experience in their native Italian language, along with health professionals who talk about the condition. It also features English subtitles.
“The video is a family-friendly resource to help raise awareness of dementia, and what supports and services are available,” Ms McCarthy said.
The video is available at Alzheimer’s Australia’s YouTube channel. It is the latest in a series of language-specific short films made for non-English speaking communities. They include films for Spanish, Arabic, Serbian, Ukrainian, Cambodian, Croatian, Assyrian and Vietnamese-speaking communities.
The video series won the NSW Health Excellence in Multicultural Film Communications Award.
The videos were produced in partnership with Why Documentaries and the Multicultural Communities Council of the Illawarra and funded by the NSW Government.
Learning from overseas on dementia-friendly communities
UK dementia expert Philly Hare will visit Melbourne next month to present a dementia-friendly communities masterclass hosted by Alzheimer’s Australia Victoria.
Ms Hare has been program manager at the UK social policy research charity Joseph Rowntree Foundation since 2006 and has led their Dementia without Walls program for the past four years, which has championed the concept of dementia-friendly communities in the UK.
In 2016 Ms Hare is on secondment to Innovations in Dementia, a community interest company in the UK, where she is focussing on disseminating the program’s learnings.
Whilst in Australia, Ms Hare will discuss the central role of people living with dementia in building a dementia-friendly society and the issues that can enhance or hinder full inclusion.
Dr David Sykes, general manager learning and development at Alzheimer’s Australia Vic said the masterclass will provide an important opportunity to hear about the UK’s experience of dementia-friendly communities and apply the learnings to an Australian context.
“The masterclass will be an interactive session in which people can explore how to take the first steps towards making their own community more dementia-friendly, regardless of whether they’re a person living with dementia, a professional or family carer, a policymaker, or from a business or service organisation which interacts with the public,” said Dr Sykes.
The event to be held 21 June will also discuss learnings from Victoria’s pilot dementia-friendly community, Beechworth in regional Victoria and outline some of the work being undertaken by Manningham City Council to become a dementia-friendly city.
For more information visit Alzheimer’s Australia Vic’s website.
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