Dementia services

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Youngsters and elders get together

When people living with dementia interact with youngsters, both generations benefit. Amana Living is seeing this happen in a variety of settings, including the recently introduced McCusker Advocates Program.

A number of studies demonstrate the positive results of intergenerational programs for people with dementia and children. But studies aside, common sense tells us that getting residents and clients together with young people is likely to be a positive experience.

What is dementia?

Dementia is a collection of symptoms caused by disorders that affects the brain. The most common is Alzheimer’s disease.

A diagnosis of dementia can be distressing, not only for the person affected, but for their loved ones too. When someone is first diagnosed, they might not seem to have changed very much. The early signs include things like:

How to talk with someone living with dementia

There's a lot of advice out there about how to communicate effectively with people living with dementia. Amana Living Dementia Specialist Louise Jones gives her perspective here.

The information in articles offering advice on communication with someone living with dementia is often very similar. But they are always worth reading because the way they are stated may strike a different chord, depending on you and your situation.

Enrichment on Channel 7

Our enrichment activities have attracted the attention of Channel 7, with two segments airing earlier this month.

The intergenerational activities at Club Kinross provided excellent footage for Today Tonight. Children from the local kindy visit our clients with dementia regularly to play games. The fun had by both generations is quite touching, and importantly it provides our clients with an opportunity to be 'grandparents' and the children with the chance to mix with older people when they may not have extended family around.

Music to 'reawaken' memories

Amana Living has launched an innovative music program that uses personalised playlists to ‘reawaken’ people living with dementia.

Based on the US Music and Memory initiative, Amana Living's Tune into Life program involves creating personalised playlists to unlock deep memories that were previously lost. The playlists are loaded onto iPods and played via earphones to shut out extraneous noise.

Leading the way in dementia care

While our two dementia ‘hubs’ are developed in Perth’s northern and southern metro areas, our dementia specialists continue to provide support in our care centres and the wider community. Tim Nayton (GM Health Care) shares an update on progress towards our vision for dementia care. 

The two dementia service centres in Bull Creek and Kinross are central to our vision for the future – to become leaders in the field of dementia care – and we’re well on the way to realising it.

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