THE recently formed Hastings Dementia Friendly Steering Committee has adopted a series of measures to make the Port Macquarie-Hastings area the first dementia-friendly community in Australia.
Member for Port Macquarie and Committee Chair, Leslie William, said one of the issues the committee adopted at its most recent meeting was to ask members of the community living with dementia or their carers exactly what they thought could be done to make the idea a reality.
“The committee feels the best way to start this project is to ask those people who are living with dementia everyday what they would like a dementia friendly community to look like,” Mrs Williams said.
“We are organising a series of workshops, bringing people with dementia and their carers together to discuss options.
“If anyone is living with dementia or caring for someone who has dementia, we would love to hear from them about how we can make the Port Macquarie region more supportive of people with dementia and their carers.
“At the same time, Alzheimer’s Australia NSW, which is the peak body for people with dementia, their families and carers, is developing a Guide for local communities on how to become more dementia friendly.
“This will provide ways on how the community can work together to ensure a more inclusive environment.
“People may have already found some things in the community that are already working well, but there may be areas that could do with improvement. This might be to do with the local physical environment, the attitude of other people, the retail and business environment, social and sporting clubs or local support services.
“We would like people to share their views and experience with us at one of the proposed meetings.”
Meetings will be held at the Mid North Coast Medicare Local Office, 53 Lord Street, Port Macquarie, on Monday 17 February from10am to noon or on Friday 21 February from 10am to noon or 2pm to 4pm.
It is important that people book by calling Terri Cane on 66584 7444. For further information, call Judy Bartholomew on 6651 6415 or email: judy.bartholomew@alzheimers.org.au
The move to ask for feedback comes as dementia prevalence figures were released for 2014, revealing a leap in the number of Australians with dementia to more than 332,000.
Analysis of dementia prevalence rates by Deloitte Access Economics reveal coastal and regional NSW will continue to bear the brunt of increasing dementia prevalence rates, while the metropolitan areas of the State will also experience a steady increase in the number of people with dementia.
Dementia prevalence rates for 2014 indicate that there are almost 112,000 people living with dementia in NSW, which is expected to grow to 132,000 people by 2020.
The Tweed and Port Macquarie state electorates sit at the top of the table when it comes to projected dementia figures, with both electorates expected to have more than 5000 people with dementia each by 2050.
In the Port Macquarie and Oxley state electorates, which are ranked numbers two and seven respectively in the state in terms of dementia prevalence, there are an estimated 3190 people with dementia, which is expected to increase to 4070 by 2020 and 10,100 by 2050.
