Dementia Action Week takes place from 19 – 25 September 2022 in Australia.
Celebrity supporters, Ambassadors, Patron Ita Buttrose AC OBE and a person living with dementia have combined forces and lent their voices to an audiobook version of Dementia Australia’s Dementia Guide.
“The Dementia Guide is the go-to online resource for any person impacted by any form of dementia, of any age, in any location across Australia,” Ms Buttrose said.
“Speaking for the voices team, I know we have all been thrilled to contribute to The Dementia Guide Audiobook to increase the accessibility to vital information about dementia and the support available.
“Each person who has shared their voice has had an experience of dementia in their family and we have done this to raise awareness and help others to know they are not alone and that there is support available.”
Dementia Australia Ambassadors and voices Natarsha Belling, Stephanie Bendixsen, Takaya Honda, Mark Seymour, Denis Walter OAM, Pat Welsh and celebrity supporters Rhonda Burchmore OAM and Geraldine Hickey wholeheartedly echo Ita’s words and have enthusiastically backed the project.
Not just for people living with dementia, The Dementia Guide is also for friends, families and carers, and talks to the impact dementia may have on a person, the treatment, support and services they may need, and how loved ones can provide support.
Stephanie Bendixsen, video game critic and television presenter, said she added her voice to the audiobook as she sees the value in a more accessible resource for families, such as hers, who need to navigate life with dementia.
“My mother passed away from Alzheimer’s disease in 2018, and we really knew so little about dementia when she was diagnosed,” Ms Bendixsen said.
“This made it difficult to understand why certain things were happening with her behaviourally, and we struggled to understand what was truly going on inside her brain, how her physicality was affected and how best we could support her and my Dad, her main carer, as a family.
“Resources like this are so very valuable, and their accessibility even more so. Even though I consider myself a big reader – finding the time to sit down and read a book can be tricky when you have a busy lifestyle. I switched to audiobooks years ago so that I can absorb books while I’m driving, walking the dog, doing chores – it’s been life-changing. An easily accessible resource like this would have made a wonderful difference to me and my family when we were coming to terms with how Mum’s – and our lives – would change.”
The audiobook includes a welcome from Dementia Australia CEO Maree McCabe AM and a chapter recorded by Ann Pietsch, who is a Dementia Advocate and lives with dementia.
“I was invited to read one of the chapters and I personally think that The Dementia Guide is a valuable resource, making it available as an audio book is a great idea as it will now be easily available to more people living with dementia, carers, and families and the wider public,” Mrs Pietsch said.
This media release has been provided by DementiaAustralia.org media release issued on 17 August 2022.
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AustraliaFitnessToday.com Celebrities combine forces and voices to support people impacted by dementia, plus National Dementia Helpline now 24/7 is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license. Source: https://www.australiafitnesstoday.com/?p=12423&preview=true
