National Dementia Showcase at DCU to mark World Alzheimer Day

On the eve of World Alzheimer Day (21st September), DCU has hosted a national dementia awareness, skills and education showcase today in partnership with the Alzheimer Society of Ireland (ASI) and the Health Service Executive.

The winners of the national Dementia Innovation Awards were revealed at the event and a new Dementia Friendly Community Toolkit will be launched to ensure that communities all over Ireland can become better places in which to live with dementia.

The Dementia Showcase at the Helix brought together those with dementia, their families, carers, health professionals and public facing services to discover and experience the latest innovations in Irish dementia awareness, dementia education and dementia care.

It links dementia research expertise with informative talks, practical exhibits and interactive workshops delivered by community groups who support people with dementia on a daily basis.

The winners of the 2016 Dementia Elevator Innovation Awards were announced at the event and presented by Michael Fitzgerald, Head of Operations and Service Improvement, Older Person Services, HSE.

The top award was claimed by Mary Walsh, speech and language therapist at St Mary’s Hospital in Dublin’s Phoenix Park who is using a picture-based communication system, Talking Mats, which helps involve people with dementia in the decision-making process regarding their condition, particularly at the end stage of dementia.

Runners-up included Johanne Murphy, a senior physiotherapist in Naas General Hospital who is working with the SuperValu frontline staff to make shopping less complicated for the person with dementia through staff training and changes to the store environment; and Anchorlily, a Dublin-based company which creates bespoke blankets which uses images of significant life events to help anchor a person with dementia back to their identity, letting them interact with their memories.

Dr Kate Irving, who leads the Dementia Elevator project at DCU said, “These awards have served as a way of celebrating the good work people are already doing and of encouraging more creative endeavours in the future. Nationally there is great energy in working towards making a better place for people with dementia. However there is a legacy of stigma, under-recognition, under-funding and unequally distributed services. The showcase and subsequent roadshow are an attempt to ensure geography is no barrier to people getting access to the information available to them.”

The showcase marks the beginning of a national Dementia Roadshow by the Dementia Skills Elevator project which will take in Clonmel, Kinsale, Tralee, Limerick, Roscommon, Castlebar, Achill Island, Donegal and Dundalk over the coming week.

The Alzheimer Society also launched their Dementia Friendly Community Toolkit containing resources which will support organisations, businesses and communities to be more informed and enabled to support people with dementia and their loved ones to stay living well. It also contains a guide to creating a Dementia Friendly Community that has been created by The Alzheimer Society of Ireland (ASI) to support organisations, companies, groups and individuals that wish to make their community more dementia friendly. This guide provides a practical framework based on the ASI experience over the past three years in supporting communities to work towards becoming more dementia friendly.

Interim CEO with The ASI, Miriam Enright said, “ Today as we launch our Dementia Friendly Toolkit we are excited to be moving one step closer to realising our goal of a dementia-friendly Ireland. There are 55,000 people living with dementia in Ireland, 63pc of whom live among us in our communities and want to remain active, engaged citizens. This toolkit focuses on how best we can all support people with dementia to live well in our communities and we urge retailers, community groups and everyone to get behind us and help us make Ireland dementia-friendly."

Professor Brian Lawlor, Trinity College Dublin and Chair of the National Dementia Awareness Campaign announced that a new national campaign by the HSE in partnership with the Alzheimer Society of Ireland and Genio, with funding from the Atlantic Philanthropies will be launched on Monday 24th October 2016.

He said, “Dementia is not simply a health issue or ageing issue but one which requires a societal response to ensure that people with dementia can live the best lives possible. All of the wonderful work demonstrated at today’s showcase shows a growing movement in Ireland to help build supportive and compassionate communities for people living with dementia. The National Dementia Campaign seeks to harness this energy and build upon existing initiatives to create a national movement in which individuals, organisations, businesses and communities stand together to improve the lives of people with dementia and their carers.”