Our Community

We invite you to get involved in the network. Click the button below to subscribe to the Dementia Mate Wareware Network mailing list and receive news, updates on our work, and invitations to network events.

It is important that all experiences of dementia mate wareware in Aotearoa New Zealand are included in the Network. We welcome, for example: people living with dementia mate wareware; their care partners, family and whānau; the primary care workforce, community groups, home support providers; residential care, health professionals, secondary care and specialist services; educators, researchers, and policymakers. 

As part of the Network, you will work with others to provide the views and opinions of people connected to dementia mate wareware in Aotearoa New Zealand. The Network meets online every six weeks for discussion huis and information-sharing webinars. 

Join the Network email list

 

Did you know that 7% of people living with dementia mate wareware are under the age of 65? Traditional models of support are set up to focus on the needs of older adults. We need age-appropriate services and support for all people living with younger-onset dementia mate wareware and their whānau in Aotearoa New Zealand. This webinar offers you the chance to find out more about younger-onset dementia mate wareware, what best-practice support might look like, and some of the innovative home-grown services that are on offer.

With or without dementia, meaningful activities and meaningful relationships are at the heart of a positive and enjoyable life. But what is meaningful activity? How can we find activities that suit the unique person? How do we help them engage? What makes an activity meaningful?

Great communication support can help people living with dementia mate wareware to maintain their sense of self, their relationships, and their quality of life. Communication is caring – we aren’t just chatting, we are acknowledging each other as people. Our supportive communication skills can help improve the quality of our relationships, understanding, and moments of joy with the people we support. 

It’s important to help someone living with dementia mate wareware to get all the support that they need to make their own decisions and to protect their rights if they are being assessed for mental capacity. This July 2024 online Network hui provided an opportunity to learn more about using supported decision-making to help someone living with dementia mate wareware to make their own decisions and have control over the things that impact and are important to them and how decision-making capacity is currently assessed in a legal sense.

You can read the submission that was prepared from the Dementia Mate Wareware Ecosystem to this important review. The process of developing this submission brought together all these elements: the Dementia Action Plan, the Leadership Group, the Network, and the New Zealand Dementia Foundation. We particularly note the contribution of the online Network hui held in May that was co-hosted by the Health New Zealand Future of Ageing Well Services and Funding Models review team. Over 100 people attended and discussed 12 aspirational statements for aged care services provided by Te Whatu Ora to stimulate debate.

 

 

 

This meeting was an opportunity to hear the good news about a range of exciting new services across the motu to support people living with dementia mate wareware, their whānau, and care partners/supporters to live their best possible lives funded by the Budget 2022 Dementia Mate Wareware Initiative.

This webinar shares key resources identified by the South Island Alliance's Dementia End of Life Project. Speakers include:

• Jane Goodwin, National Advance Care Planning Programme, Te Tāhū Hauora Health Quality & Safety Commission  
• Margaret O'Connor, NP, MonARC Health
• Vicki Telford, CNS, Nurse Maude Hospice

 

This gathering of the Dementia Mate Wareware Network / Te Tūhononga mō te Mate Wareware was an opportunity to hear updates and feedback on the progress and priorities that have been made possible by all the mahi the Network has put in.

The hui included the following areas:

• Te Whatu Ora and Te Aka Whai Ora's announcement on the projects they have selected for the Budget 2022 funding: View here
• The Leadership Group's response to the Network's recommendations for supporting diagnosis in primary care, family whānau carers, and the professional workforce View here
• Updates on engaging with Pasifika providers and communities View now

 

 

 

This meeting was an opportunity to hear updates about Māori-focused support and assessment. The presentations were:

The Tūhononga Whaiaro model for mainstream services that support people living with mate wareware: Dr Oliver Menzies

The MANA (Māori Assessment of Neuropsychological Abilities) approach for cognitive assessment: Dr Makarena Dudley

The culturally appropriate assessment model for InterRAI Assessments: Sally Aydon

 

The Dementia Mate Wareware Network met in April and May 2023 to consider their recommendations for next steps for selected areas of the action plan. 
You can read a booklet that summarises their recommendations. 

 

Te Whatu Ora and Te Aka Whai Ora invited the Dementia Governance Ecosystem to provide advice to government about the commissioning process for the Budget 2022  Dementia Mate Wareware Action Plan project. The Network was invited to particpate in a survey in January and a hui in February 2023. You can read a booklet that summarises the advice and the main messages from the Network.

 

The inaugural hui discussion centred on what participants wanted the Network to be like and what they want for the Dementia Mate Wareware Ecosystem. The "Kōrero Mai: Let’s talk" booklet that summarises the key messages that came out of this discussion. This document provides an important manifesto from the ecosystem.