Alzheimer’s group urgently needs volunteers

What have you got planned for 2024? Could you help by volunteering with Alzheimer’s Tauranga to make life more rewarding for the more than 600 families across the Western Bay of Plenty living with dementia?

Alzheimer’s Tauranga is urgently looking for volunteers to help support the growing number of families affected by dementia. Many of their regular volunteers finished up last year as they plan to travel, had become unwell themselves or were ageing and less able to volunteer.

Volunteer coordinator Stephanie Harlan says the organisation is looking for people with a wide range of skills and experience from across the Tauranga-Western Bay area.

“We’re wanting anyone who is compassionate, trustworthy, reliable and, above all, patient to work with our clients in all sorts of ways. The roles include befrienders, people who can help in social and companion groups, cognitive stimulation therapy programmes for clients, and others who may have skills in helping people write their life stories or assist with art, music and creative activities.

“We’ll provide training about dementia and supporting people with dementia as well as an Introduction to Dementia certificate. We run four to six training sessions a year, which can cover more in-depth areas such as aphasia [inability to speak or understand speech], Parkinson’s and caring for dementia clients through an occupational therapy lens.

“We want to help as many people with dementia as possible, but we just can’t do it without our volunteers. We currently need a few more volunteers to meet the demands of our growing service.”

Anyone interested in volunteering with Alzheimer’s can contact volunteers.tauranga@alzheimers.org.nz