Bendigo Community Health Services is using firsthand accounts of dementia to teach its staff how best to work with clients affected by the disease.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The public health provider has spent 18 months developing a training program for its employees, joining walking groups and visiting the homes of people living with dementia to ask how BCHS could cater to the needs of ailing people and their carers.
Project worker Anne-Marie Kelly described conversations between her team and people living with dementia as “an emotional rollercoaster”.
“We had some great laughs, but there was also some really emotional times.”
It was not only its healthcare providers who needed a better understanding of dementia, but all members of her organisation, Ms Kelly said.
One interviewee disclosed the greetings he received from office reception staff would determine whether he stayed for his appointment or hurriedly went home.
“He would freeze up, walk out, and because of that experience, never come back to a place,” Ms Kelly said, describing the man’s response to an abrasive or cool welcome.
The BCHS spokeswoman also said the city’s culturally and linguistically diverse communities presented challenges for models of dementia care.
Their study found little was known about the disease inside Bendigo’s Karen population, a community that called dementia “old person’s disease”.
“Because they’re going to be moving here and living longer, it’s going to be more prevalent, so it’s something we need to be working on,” Ms Kelly said.
Almost one million Australians are expected to be living with dementia by 2050.
Australian Bureau of Statistics data released this week showed dementia was the second leading cause of death in 2015.
“We need to be prepared, because it’s coming,” Ms Kelly said.
Asked how the training module would benefit the wider community, Ms Kelly said organisations throughout Bendigo may soon use the resource to upskill its staff too.
Several towns throughout Australia, including nearby Heathcote, are working towards becoming dementia-friendly postcodes.
In Beechworth, a library and public toilets have been designed so people living with dementia can easily navigate their way around, and carer networks have also bee established.
The dementia project marks a change in approach for BCHS, that now wants to engage community members in the development of all of its major projects.
Members of the public in the interview process to employ new staff