Wairarapa service provides purpose and meaning for locals
The Alzheimers Wairarapa team is passionate about making sure the community gets the support they deserve despite the many challenges the service faces.
Community Support Nurse Tam Williams – who has been with the organisation for 10 years – and Esther Tafa make up the total headcount of staff, supported by a ‘big group of volunteers who keep it going’.
It’s an exciting new chapter for the organisation, which has recently welcomed new Board Chair Alicia Roberts.
There are three main programmes on offer – the Iona day programme (alongside Glenwood Masonic Hospital), Out and About and in-person support groups for care partners.
Tam describes the Iona day programme as “purposeful and meaningful” and welcomed by both care partners and the person living with dementia mate wareware.
The Out and About programme is as the name suggests. Since the service has their own van for pickups and drop offs, the community has rallied behind them on occasion with half-price tickets to museum, supporting trips to the countryside or attending the Golden Shears.
While it may look like just a day out, this programme offers people the chance to retain essential skills like remembering their pin number if they go for coffee at a local café.
Trips to local beaches like Castlepoint are a crowd favourite and most participants can manage a walk out to the lighthouse – those in wheelchairs are supported by those who can help.
“They’ll start telling you about when they were children or when they took their kids to the beach. They still get joy from the beach even though they’re 70, 80 or 90.”
Tam regularly provides education in the community and partners with other organisations – like Community Law – to help people understand some of the challenges they may face, like rest home subsidies.
Like many other local non-government organisations, there is a large focus on fundraising.
As the only local Alzheimers service around the country to not receive any government funding, the team has gotten creative about how to make their services sustainable.
The society is supported through grants, donations, and fundraising activities, including its annual Bricks and Wheels exhibition and a weekly garage sale organized by the “A” team, a dedicated group of local volunteers.
Alzheimers Wairarapa can only transport people within a 10-minute radius of their Masterton office, which means others in nearby towns – like Carterton, Greytown, Featherson and Martinborough – can miss out on essential support.
For example, they’ve unofficially partnered with other local services who are travelling around the region anyway to help get people where they need to be.
During her time at the service, Tam has noticed more older people moving from the big cities to retire in the regions, which has increased the demand on their services.
They have also had a wave of people diagnosed with Young Onset Dementia this year, despite healthcare professionals being slow to diagnose a person with dementia.
Despite the challenges, the organisation is positive about the future of the services and the impact it makes for whānau.
CAPTION: From left Tam Williams, Alicia Roberts and Esther Tafa