Dementia day programme’s milestone
Five years ago Alzheimers Taranaki decided it wanted to start up a day programme down in the south - there were eight people in attendance.
Today, the day programmes take place at the Hawera Bowling Club twice a week and there are 27 people on the roll.
The programme coordinator Margaret Mullin, and assistant coordinator Judy Greenwood, look back on the past five years and smile.
They said the rise in numbers showed awareness and acceptance was growing around dementia.
‘‘People often believe that if a diagnosis has been made that this person is completely doolally straight away,’’ Greenwood said.
‘‘But no, these people remain intelligent, they remain sociable and all the rest of things.’’
Mullin said a lot of people didn’t understand dementia.
‘‘They think people will be hanging from the roof, or swinging from the rafters or something silly,’’ she said.
‘‘It’s not like that.’’
The day programmes are an opportunity for people with dementia to be social, and have a bit of fun too.
‘‘The idea is that we socialise them, that we do some activities with them, we give them a meal, sometimes we have entertainment come in the afternoon, or we do craft with them and make things,’’ Greenwood said.
The day programmes are also an opportunity for family, friends and carers to have a break for themselves.
The pair said seeing the smiles on members’ faces as they leave made it all worth it.
‘‘It’s a pretty good feeling when we get to 3pm and we’re all packing up to go home and we’re all chatting about the day,’’ Mullin said.
‘‘And we’ve made a difference for a lot of families, that’s probably a highlight - the fact that we are making a difference.’’
The members of the day programme were treated to purple decorations and pikelets, jam and cream to celebrate its fifth year up and running - some had even been attending since day one.
People need to be referred to the day programmes by a general practitioner or field worker. If you are concerned about yourself or another or interested in learning more about dementia, call Shirley McGlinchey 06 278 8519.