Bowling for change. The Cairns club building a new understanding of dementia
Richard Dinnen - Queensland Editor |
One day, George went up to his bowls club bar and asked for a café latte. He meant to say ‘beer’, but his early-stage dementia got in the way.
In that moment of human frailty, George started a movement that’s changing the way we understand dementia and the almost half a million Australians affected by it.
His fellow members at the Edge Hill Memorial Bowls Club in Cairns realised George might need help to keep playing, and they made it their business to learn what would be required.
Jill Alexander-Sachse recalls the moment.
“George and I had been playing bowls all day, and we got into the locker room, and he was talking about the dementia.
“I said why don’t we start up a dementia-friendly club, and he said that’s a good idea. Club manager, Lawrence Green, made us do the homework, and we got a $15,000 grant from Dementia Australia.”
The transition to dementia-friendly involved teaching staff how to handle likely patron behaviours.
And, as Jeannie Wild explains, dementia-related visual perception changes required some significant décor alterations.
“With white-on-white colour schemes, people with dementia can’t discern what’s what, and they just get lost.
“We’ve had a couple of people get lost in the bathrooms. We repainted in there, and the bar, changing colours to address that.
“We also changed the crockery from white plates to grey, so they could see the potato and cauliflower. Plates in contrasting colours to the table, coloured cups.”
The bowls club supported the changes, and there was fundraising for equipment to help people play, including a wheelchair with tyres that don’t damage the greens.
Two years later, there’s a well-attended monthly bowls day for people with dementia and their carers, a keenly anticipated social event with a top-notch morning tea and live music.
Jeannie Wild said lawn bowls offers the ideal activity for people with dementia.
“It’s about exercise and being out in the fresh air, the sunshine, and socialising.
“We realise now that sunshine and socialising are two really important things for people with dementia. It helps them a lot, it slows things down.
“One of the huge issues for them is they’re isolated. They don’t feel comfortable in a public setting because people don’t understand them.
“This is one place they can come, where the carer can come, and everybody is equal and it’s all inclusive.”
Dementia is a group of illnesses that cause a progressive decline in memory, intellect, rationality, social skills, and physical functioning.
Dementia can happen to anybody, but it is more common as we age.
Over the past two years, this Edge Hill club initiative has grown into the Far North Queensland Dementia Alliance, a regional support network pushing to expand the scope of dementia-friendly activities and venues.
Jeannie Wild said the Alliance has an ever-increasing role in Cairns and the surrounding region.
“There are so many people living with dementia, some of them diagnosed, a lot of them are not.
“There’s 2500 people in Cairns that have been diagnosed, but I bet you there’s that many again, or more, that are not.
“It’s a huge, growing thing. It’s massive, a big concern.”
The Far North Queensland Dementia Alliance hopes to raise awareness across the region, where remote and isolated communities need help to support people with dementia.
And Jeannie Wild says it hopes to raise funds for a roof over the picturesque Edge Hill green, so bowls can proceed during the drenching tropical wet season rains.
“That would be fabulous. The cost is pretty big. If there’s anyone out there with very deep pockets, that would be awesome.
“I think we’ve started something really quite special here. We’re not the only ones, but getting it spread around, and encouraging other people, that’s really important.”
