Mention Dementia Conversation Cards: a resource to improve engagement with people living with dementia across the community through conversation.
Over the past 12 months, Dr Kathleen Doherty and Dr Helen Courtney-Pratt have been working on the Dementia Conversation Card project, funded through a Dementia Friendly Communities Grant from Dementia Australia. We have been working closely with the Younger Onset Group, the Muttaburras and the Wise Witty Women, whose members are people living with dementia. Our goal was to co-design conversation cards specifically about personal experiences of dementia to help stimulate conversations about dementia. Each card comprises a beautiful Tasmanian image together with a message from the card creator: a person living with dementia. On the reverse side of the card we include a key fact about dementia.
We were excited to launch our “Mention Dementia” prototype cards at the Australian Dementia Forum held recently in Hobart. We presented a display of posters of just some of the beautiful images we collected during the project and some of the important messages people with dementia wish to express. Many of the images came from a visit of group members to the Royal Tasmania Botanic Gardens.
We have recently completed our process of agreeing the card content and are currently working with the members of the groups and Dementia Australia to finalise and produce the cards as a set for distribution.
One of the most important ways to promote dementia awareness is through encouraging discussions about dementia. We hope that, by making ideas tangible through presenting them as words and pictures, we can catalyse new conversations. Our next step is to explore how these cards help stimulate conversations about dementia in different settings and whether they can help people improve their understanding and awareness of dementia.
Photo: Launching the Mention Dementia Conversation Cards. Dr Kathleen Doherty, Victoria Marshall-Cerins, Project Manager, Dementia Friendly Communities, Dementia Australia and Dr Helen Courtney-Pratt at the Australian Dementia Forum.
