Creating something that no-one has done before can be daunting and challenging. Doing it in dementia can be even harder - we all remember this encounter with an “innovation coach” who said to me that “dementia is not worthwhile investing”!
The last two years have been incredibly challenging for many of the My Dementia Companion volunteer family, both personally and professionally. Despite this, we all continue to donate hundreds of hours to support carers and never quivered from our mission of empowering families impacted by dementia to live well at home for longer.
We were only able to overcome the tough times with the generous support of so many generous individuals and organisations (see our original appreciation announcement here). Today, we want to make a dedicated “shout-out” to one of earliest and longest supporters, Caladenia Dementia Care (CDC), and two new supporters Arcare Family Foundation and Mable Community Grants.
Caladenia Dementia Care
CDC is one of the oldest dementia specific support organisations. With a shared vision of improving the lives of those impacted by dementia, their leaders Sarah and Harry have been extremely supportive of our journey through their invaluable counsel, advice and have lent a listening ear to many of my frustrations.
Their team members and carers have partnered with us from the beginning to work out the best way to support those impacted by dementia. We have undertaken many workshops, co-design sessions, tests and passionate discussion to push our sector forward.
We just want to say a big thank you and look forward to conquering more challenges together in the next phase!
And with that, CDC and My Dementia Companion are extremely grateful and privileged to be recognised and given a very much needed hand by two amazing organisations. Their generous validation, encouragement and support will give us the much needed lift we need in the next leg of our journey.
You can learn about CDC here.
Arcare Family Foundation
The Arcare Family Foundation aims to encourage and support innovations that give all Australians the opportunity to age well. We admire their vision for innovation and creating a community where older people, including those impacted by dementia are valued, supported and thriving.
Putting this into practice, they have contributed generously to many organisations including health services, research organisations, community organisations and more.
As a leader in the aged care industry, their validation of our idea is another boost for us. Sarah and I connected with Anita from the foundation late last year and have since received very fruitful and insightful advice and guidance.
So, it’s our absolute privilege to receive a generous grant from them to help us deliver new features, which will improve care outcomes for more Australians and hopefully help us achieve financial sustainability (more to come on this in the future months - state tuned). This will enable us to continue our efforts to help even more people impacted by dementia and ongoing innovation.
You can learn more about the Arcare Family Foundation here.
Mable Community Grants
Like everyone else, we wish for more innovation and support for more innovation in disability and aged care. So, we were delighted to discover the Mable Community Grant program and even more delighted to be awarded one of the winners recently.
The Mable Community Grants initiative was launched in 2020 and supports people and projects working toward improving independence and inclusion. It provides a platform for the community to be a catalyst for change they most want to see in society.
We are honoured to be a winner and receive the validation from the judging panel, which included carers and families impacted by dementia. This gives us the mental fuel to move forward.
The funding provided from the Mable Community Grants team will enable us to:
Undertake more co-design work with carers to develop important features and improvements for the existing tool, which we couldn’t do prior
Explore innovative ways to curate support information on daily challenges, so they are more practical and useful.
You can learn more about the Mable Community Grants here.
Next phase
We are so grateful for the amazing support from so many people and organisations. We couldn’t have done it without you and nor could we continue without you. So thank you!
We will keep you updated on our upcoming adventures.
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