Virtual info centre to help dementia

A new online resource which aims to assist Australians to create better environments for people with dementia will go live on Tuesday, 28 August.

The Virtual Information Centre will offer a range of resources and information on home, garden and aged care facility designs and adaptations suitable for people with Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia.

The website is part of the Dementia Enabling Environments Project (DEEP), a collaboration between Alzheimer’s Australia WA, University of Wollongong, University of Tasmania, the Dementia Collaborative Research Centre, Curtin University’s Centre for Research on Ageing, dementia specialist architects and people living with dementia.

Alzheimer’s Australia WA general manager, Jason Burton, said the new DEEP Virtual Information Centre would give family carers practical and useful information on adapting the home.

“Creating enabling environments at home for people living with dementia can help maintain independence, reduce risk and provide meaningful engagement leading to improved wellbeing,” he said.

“This wonderful resource should be a first point of call for anyone interested in improving physical environments for people living with dementia.”

Director of the NSW/ACT Dementia Training Study Centre, Professor Richard Fleming, said the virtual information centre would provide aged care staff and families easy access to a “wealth of information” on good design for people with dementia.

“I have watched it grow from an idea to a reality and every time I have looked at it I have found something new. It isn’t just easy to use, it is fun to use. And, very importantly, the information is backed by research.”

Professor Roger Fay, Honorary Fellow at the University of Tasmania’s Wicking Dementia Research and Education Centre and Chair of Architecture in the School of Architecture & Design, claimed as very few dementia design consultants exist in Australia, information was not readily or widely available.

“Providing a single point of access to up to date, key information is an affordable and efficient way to support architects, interior designers and landscape designers to make better design decisions for people affected by dementia,” he said.

“It will allow designers to seek further expert information and encourage the sharing of knowledge and provides opportunities for review by, and feedback from, experts which will add richness and depth to design solutions.”

The DEEP Virtual Information Centre will be launched at the Boulevard Centre in Western Australia on Tuesday, August 28 at 10am.

Funded through a National Quality Dementia Care Initiative, the DEEP Project was aimed at translating research into best practice dementia focused design guidelines for architects and designers of aged care facilities.

Did you know dementia affects one in 15 people aged 65 years and over, one in nine people aged between 60 and 84 years and one in four people aged 85 years and over?