Program Manager Community, Alzheimer's
Australia Vic
dementia is more likely to experience
depression than the general population,
depression is often poorly diagnosed and
treated. To address this issue, Alzheimer's
Australia Vic. collaborated with beyondblue
to develop two workshops to improve the
identification of depression in people living with
dementia and to ensure more appropriate care
practices are implemented. One workshop
targeted family carers and the other health and
aged care professionals. These workshops
were then delivered nationally through the
various Alzheimer's Australia organisations.
workshops including an understanding of
depression, why people with dementia are
more at risk, the need for early diagnosis and
the psycho-social interventions that carers can
implement to improve the overall well being
of the person with dementia. Differences
in content and approach between the two
workshops, given the two discrete audiences,
will also be discussed.
educational learnings gained from delivering
the workshops as well as the project overall.
These included why changes were made to
despite positive family carer feedback, this was
a difficult audience to attract. It will also reflect
on the value of collaborations such as that
between beyondblue and Alzheimer's Australia
for future education in this area.
living with dementia's life has become a
developing area of shared understanding. Over
the last 10 years, we have noticed that when
the pictures of cognitive memory fade, the
feelings or knowing of emotional memory stay
intact and perhaps become heightened. When
the face of a person is no longer recognised,
they are still known (emotionally). These
emotional memories may be triggered by the
present a touch, a smell, a sound or by a long
term memory that has become current for the
person.
between emotional memory and cognitive
memory. Is this a key to our work with
`challenging behaviour'? Is it really challenging
behaviour or is it perhaps that the two memory
centres are no longer working in sync. My
practice indicates that enabling the person
with dementia and their loved one/s to explore
emotional memory at the same time as
cognitive decline reduces anxiety, conflict and
stress.
meaning of this emerging understanding. Via
your engagement this will serve as a building
block for further enquiry.