Helping rewrite the future with HealthWISE
A HealthWISENew England North West initiative has created a suite of online support videos to help the growing number of Australians caring for a loved one with dementia. The Caring about Dementia short films provide up-to-date suggestions and advice from health professionals to support carers in caring for someone living with dementia and therefore positively affect their level of stress, anxiety or depression.
Almost 300,000 Australians caring for a person living with dementia and the everyday challenges of communication, personal care, loss of independence and respite can seem impossible to overcome and often affect relationships between carers and their loved ones.
Many of the issues facing dementia carers are common no matter where in Australia they live, including how to calm a family member when agitated, managing day-to-day activities like outings or meal preparation, and even supporting a family member to care for themselves.
Newcastle Permanent Charitable Foundation Chair, Phil Neat said Dementia is a disease that can strip away a person’s independence and isolate them from their family and friends, but these tools will help carers as well as family and friends of people with dementia, to better understand how to connect with their loved one despite the behaviour and communication challenges,”
The videos were funded by a $33,000 grant from the Charitable Foundation, and provide simple, practical and effective tips and techniques carers can use to help their loved ones navigate living with dementia and can be accessed from any nationally via the HealthWISE Dementia YouTube channel or by USB or DVD upon request.