Awarded highly commended in the 2022 Future of Ageing Awards for Community Engagement.
The Lithgow Dementia Support (LDS) group’s Creative Dementia Workshops provide a safe, inclusive and creative space for people living with dementia and their carers. The workshops aim to improve memory, anxiety and happiness through art, music and mindfulness activities, delivered by well-known and qualified facilitators. Additionally, carer support sessions help address the needs of those caring for people living with dementia, including older community members whose loved ones are living in residential care facilities.
Background
LDS was established in 2019 to solve the problem of a lack of support services for people living with dementia, their carers, and anyone in the local community interested in understanding dementia. Since 2019, LDS has been working with Dementia Australia’s Dementia Friendly Communities team to develop and deliver Creative Dementia Workshops for people living with dementia and their carers. Dementia Australia has provided LDS with support, consultation, and information to help facilitate the Workshops. Dementia Australia has also provided videography and photography services to LDA to assist in the promotion of the Workshops.
Conception and Development
The LDS identified an opportunity to deliver a multi-faceted program of creative workshops with a focus on art, music, and mindfulness. In 2020, the LDS successfully secured $11,000 in funding from Dementia Australia to develop and deliver a series of Creative Dementia Workshops. The Creative Dementia Workshops were developed in consultation with a local art therapist and counsellor as well as a music therapist.
Input was sought from members of LDS, including those living with dementia. The workshop concept was based on pilots delivered by Arts OutWest and the Sydney Memory and Cognition Clinic in 2018 and 2019. The addition of a carer support session makes the Creative Dementia Workshops more holistic in addressing the needs of those caring for people living with dementia, including older community members whose loved ones are living in residential care facilities.
Implementation and Impact
The LDS group delivered the first 10 workshops between January and June 2021, and a second round of 9 sessions between March and July 2022. Feedback from participants, both people living with dementia and their carers, has been extremely positive, with attendees citing the social inclusion, mental health benefits and fun aspects of the Workshops.
‘For me as a carer, time with other carers who just got it and [were] in no way judgemental at all, together with Jen, wow [it] is just what I needed’
Participant
Regional Services
Lithgow is a regional city in the Central Tablelands of NSW with a population of around 21,500. As a regional area, accessing dementia-related services and activities is challenging for people living in Lithgow. Journeying to the Sydney metropolitan area is fraught with difficulty for people living with dementia and their carers. The cost and travel time make many activities impossible to pursue. The Creative Dementia Workshops in Lithgow have provided creative opportunities and the chance for social inclusion for people living with dementia and those supporting them in regional and rural areas.
‘A very useful community engagement project based on sound evidence and good values’
Future of Ageing Awards judge
Why it was awarded
The Creative Dementia Workshops have been successful in providing a safe, inclusive, and creative space for people living with dementia and their carers. The workshops have also been successful in teaching mindfulness skills aimed at improving memory, anxiety, and happiness, as well as providing activities aimed at stimulating memory, conversation, and confidence, and encouraging reminiscing, and enjoyment. The workshops have also been successful in assisting people living with dementia and their carers/support people to meet with others and build connections.
Entries for the 2023 Future of Ageing Awards open May 1, 2023 – For further information.
Thanks to those companies who have shown their support for the awards through a partnership. They are listed below:
