Monday, November 6 heralded an exciting week for Anglican Care, with the launch of an innovative new program and an award for van favourite ‘Rene’ at Storm Village, Taree.
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Joining Anglican Care to launch the dementia specific program, DART, was federal Member for Lyne, Dr David Gillespie.
The Direct Action Response Team, to be known as DART, aims to treat the person on an individual basis by building knowledge of their health status, environment, past experiences, interests and family. On the escalation of dementia symptoms, Anglican Care’s DART team will be dispatched to the consumers home or Anglican Care’s residential aged care homes.
“The initiative is all about improving the quality of life of people with dementia. Our program understands dementia symptoms are different for each individual and that changes in their health and environment can trigger escalation of the dementia symptoms,” said Anglican Care CEO, Colin Osborne.
Read more: Why we need dementia friendly communities
“Research shows therapy based strategies can achieve positive results and can reduce the use of pharmaceuticals. Some of the strategies used by our DART teams will include exercise, music, and pets as therapy,” he said.
And the celebrations don’t stop there.
Anglican Care’s favourite little van, Rene the lifestyle van, has been awarded a Better Practise Award. The award was presented by Tracey Clerk from the Australian Aged Care Quality Agency on Monday.
“Rene has been such an overwhelming success. A modern take on a mobile library, Rene contains a diverse range of resources that seniors accessing Anglican Care’s services can borrow free of charge,” Anglican Care marketing manager, Kylie Jacques said.
“The van is equipped with items such as iPads, indoor golf sets, large print books, games, DVDs, art and craft items – all designed to enhance the lives of seniors and their carers, be that people living in our residential aged care homes or in the community.
“We are so honoured to receive the Award from Australian Aged Care Quality Agency for Rene as we have seen what amazing good it has done in our communities,” Ms Jacques said.