Children speak out about dementia
Alzheimer’s Australia aims to start a conversation among families living with dementia to help children better understand what changes may be happening to their grandparent.
A still image from one of the three animations.
My Grandmum, My Papu, My Grandpa and Me is a new series produced by Alzheimer’s Australia NSW which features the three children, Ezekiel, now aged seven, who lives in Western Sydney, Bibi, aged nine, who lives in Wollongong, and Julia, aged 11, who lives in the inner-west of Sydney, talking about their experiences of their grandparent with dementia, in their own words.
Alzheimer’s Australia NSW chief executive, John Watkins, said the aim of the series was to start a conversation among families living with dementia to help children better understand what changes may be happening to their grandparent.
“This age group, while not the primary carers of a person with dementia, are still affected by the condition and we thought it was very important to give them a voice,” Mr Watkins said.
“The insights contained in these short animations are amazing – very powerful and quite emotional.
“We hope these will encourage families to talk more about dementia, about how the condition may be affecting their grandparent and how they relate to their grandchild.
“We also want to give hope that there can still be that really special relationship between the grandparent and grandchild, even if the grandparent has dementia.
“It may be a different sort of relationship because of the dementia, but it can still be a really powerful, valuable and special relationship nonetheless.”
Mr Watkins said while there were many great children’s books that dealt with this topic, there was a gap in terms of this sort of resource.
“There are not the same amounts of accessible resources for this age group as there are for adults, so we wanted to start to fill that gap with this series,” Mr Watkins said.
My Grandmum, My Papu, My Grandpa and Me is available online at Alzheimer’s Australia’s new online resource hub Dementia Daily and on Alzheimer’s Australia’s YouTube Channel.
Alzheimer’s Australia NSW worked with Wollongong-based digital production house Why Documentaries to make the series. The animator was Nick Davlouros.
