Australian Filmmaker Nia Pericles provided family videos to use in the development of Ask Annie – a Dementia Australia mobile app supported by Gandel Foundation that offers short, self-paced learning modules to help care workers better care for people living with dementia.
Ms Pericles is the daughter of renowned Perth artist Leon Pericles and his wife Moira, who has dementia. Both were the subject of the documentary Storm in a Teacup that shared a personal account of Moria’s battles with the disease and its impact. Nia Pericles produced the documentary.
“To be able to share my family’s experiences through this app has been extremely humbling and very rewarding,” Ms Pericles said.
“The app is engaging and intuitive and I absolutely love that it teaches empathy and respect when engaging with people living with dementia.
“By sharing footage from my family’s personal journey, I hope to help provide real-life experiences for users on an accessible platform.”
Dementia Australia Business Innovation Manager Dr Tanya Petrovich said having Ms Pericles’ support helped to demonstrate the personal approach the app aims to provide users.
“Ask Annie applies a person-centred approach to developing skills, which ensures users learn how to put the individual and their needs at the forefront of every interaction and Nia’s videos provide a wonderful a real-life example of this,” Dr Petrovich said.
With the support of the Gandel Foundation, Ask Annie is now available for individual download with the first three introductory modules gifted to support the aged care sector.
Ask Annie can be downloaded via the Google Play Store or Apple App Store
