Heathcote Dementia Alliance asks Bendigo council for display cabin permission

It is part of a world-first bush dementia village bid to help those with those conditions live in their community longer.

The Heathcote Dementia Alliance has asked the City of Greater Bendigo for permission to install a high-tech prototype cabin at the hospital campus.

It would help give visitors a sense of what would be possible.

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"The [care cabins] will enable people to live longer in a home and familiar environment before entering residential aged care," the alliance told the council.

"There is evidence that supports the finding that the more times that a person 'moves home' in their elder years the shorter their lifespan."

The cabins would be moved to new locations as care needs changed or intensified, reducing the amount of unfamiliar surroundings people with dementia went through.

Cabins would likely include roof-mounted solar panels and water tanks.

"The proposal requires no significant earth works; minimal levelling of site may be required. No removal of native vegetation is required," the alliance told the council.

They said the display cabin's design would not compromise the heritage values of the hospital that would likely sit behind it.

The push for a display cabin comes as momentum builds for the dementia village itself.

The alliance recently opened a "futures hub" at the hospital.

The alliance is urging people to support its project by taking part in a walk or run during the O'Keefe Challenge scheduled from April 29 to May 1.

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Support and advocacy group Dementia Australia is organising an unrelated Memory Walk & Jog event at the Bendigo Botanic Gardens on April 2.

There are an estimated 487,500 Australians living with dementia, Dementia Australia says.

Without a medical breakthrough that number is expected to swell to 1.1 million by 2058.

For more information on the O'Keefe Challenge visit www.theokeefe.com.au

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