New short courses launched to support people to live independently at home
We’re delighted to share new, short online dementia design courses to help people live independently with dementia mate wareware – a first for Aotearoa New Zealand.
The dementia design courses have been developed in partnership with Alzheimers NZ, the University of Auckland Centre for Co-Created Ageing Research and The Village Architect.
They’ve been designed for people living with dementia mate wareware their whānau and practitioners.
More than a year in the making, Dementia Learning Centre Director Caroline Bartle says small changes can make a big difference to people’s lives.
“People tend to think of dementia design as being structural changes to a building, but it’s more about how to make day-to-day changes to help someone be more independent,” she says.
“It’s developed for refurbishments rather than newbuild projects. We’re talking about what you could do with what you’ve got and that’s what the sector wants, given the constraints.”
Caroline says there are lots of dementia design resources overseas, but this is the first time they have been developed for Aotearoa New Zealand.
“This is something that’s been grown through grassroots work in alliance with the co-create teams and the communities around us. It’s wonderful that we’ve been able to undertake this work because up until now, we’ve been borrowing from other places.”
The foundational courses launched this month are the first step in a comprehensive suite of resources to be shared.
An online advanced program will be launched in the coming months. In addition, in person training sessions are planned for later this year for practitioners and professionals working in design.