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Melville promotes dementia awareness through Virtual Reality

Melville promotes dementia awareness through Virtual Reality

Summary

To further the impact of an already successful age friendly initiative, the Melville Age Friendly and Accessible Business Network (MAFAB) and the City of Melville collaborated with Dementia Australia, utilising virtual reality to foster empathy for and understanding of people experiencing the effects of cognitive decline.

The City of Melville partnered with Dementia Australia to host two, two-hour Educational Dementia Immersive Experience (EDIE) workshops. These immersive workshops enable participants to see the world through the eyes of a person living with dementia by using high quality virtual reality technology.

The EDIE program was developed by Dementia Australia in conjunction with 20 people living with dementia. The delivered workshops were tailored for staff at the City of Melville and local businesses with a focus on customer and retail service.

Key facts

Main target group: Older people with chronic health conditions or disability

Other target group(s): Local businesses and local government staff

Sector(s): Education, Other

Other sector(s): Consumer and retail services

Desired outcome for older people:
Meet their basic needs

Other issues the Age-friendly practice aims to address:
  • Accessibility
  • Dementia
  • Inclusion
  • Participation

Contact details

Name: Deena Lazzari

Email address: Naomi.Christensen@melville.wa.gov.au

Age-friendly practice in detail (click to expand):

Engaging the wider community

Project lead: Local authorities

Others involved in the project:
  • Social or health care provider
  • Private sector

How collaboration worked: The City of Melville received funding of $1500 from Dementia & Alzheimer’s Australia to cover the facilitation of the workshops as part of their Dementia Friendly Communities grant program. The project was managed by the City of Melville Seniors officers.

Older people’s involvement: Older people were consulted during the planning process

Details on older people’s involvement: A group of people living with dementia and their carers were consulted in the planning stages about who should be invited to participate for maximum impact.

Moving forward

Has the impact of this age-friendly practice been analysed: No

Do you plan to evaluate your age-friendly practice? No

Feedback:
Feedback from participants was overwhelmingly positive and further opportunities to expand to others was requested.

Expansion plans:
Yes, we would like to continue to run these sessions to reach more businesses and staff at the City of Melville.

Looking back

Reflections:
Fifteen employees at a time, glimpsed the confusion and challenges of everyday life for a person living with dementia, the quiet courage of caregivers, and the simple and effective ways in which the customer experience can be made easier for both. Subsequent discussions also provided an overview of the different types of dementia, how symptoms may manifest and impact a consumer’s perspective of dementia, and how to recognise the signs of dementia. Participants came to learn that by improving the customer service experience for people living with dementia, customer service improves for everyone. More sessions have been requested by participants to increase the awareness and knowledge of other businesses and more staff within the City of Melville, to broaden the impacts for the wider community. The ripple effect is a city with empathy, a place that embraces and truly serves and includes everyone.

Challenges:
The biggest challenge was ensuring businesses commitment. We addressed this by targeting a large retail centre in the area, which had already demonstrated commitment to greater accessibility. Participants included security staff, upper management and retail designers.