Manager Antoinette McLean said the organisation’s new centre on the ground floor of Burns House, 10 George St, had enabled it to deal with an ongoing increase in referrals and provide 10 support groups per month throughout the region.
"We are now working directly with 460 people with dementia and their families across Otago, including 129 families referred in the past year," Mrs McLean said.
"Many of the cases we are seeing now are quite complex, or the carers of the person with dementia are living in another city or overseas — it is a situation that is becoming increasingly common."
Along with providing one-on-one support and advice and its popular support groups, Alzheimers Otago provides an increasing number of education sessions among health professionals and in the community.
"We are even able to provide immersive training, which gives people the opportunity to experience what it is like to have dementia, and can re-enable people to have a good quality of life," she said.
In Dunedin, Alzheimers Otago is leading Minds in Motion — a cognitive stimulation therapy programme suitable for people with mild-to-moderate dementia — which it hopes to find funding for to continue into 2025.
The activity-based programme involved twice-weekly small group sessions for up to six people, and gave people with dementia the opportunity to be engaged, stimulated and to form friendships, Mrs McLean said.
Another "great initiative" was the Minds Together programme, in conjunction with the University of Otago, which was an eight-week programme that buddied people with dementia with students in a learning environment.
"The Minds Together programme has had great results from both sides — it is a wonderful way for people to learn and to engage with younger people."
These programmes and others, along with support groups, were run by "amazing volunteers" of all ages, including students.
"We couldn’t do this work without them," she said.
Alzheimers Otago had also signed up a social work intern, which had been very helpful, Mrs McLean said.
"We are trying to work with the university and polytechnic to find ways to help us with our capacity, and also to give experience to people who may become part of our future workforce.
"And we are always looking at new initiatives and pilot programmes to help meet the needs of our clients, as well as connecting with groups in the community doing great work — such as the Music for Dementia group and dementia-friendly Book Spark groups in our libraries.
"We collaborate with other agencies and NGO’s to offer the Dementia Mate Wareware Homeshare pilot programme for people with dementia.
"This is a weekly programme where participants attend for a couple hours and share activities and lunch.
"It is respite time for the carer and engaging cognitive and social interactions for the person with dementia."
To make a donation to Alzheimers Otago visit alzheimersotago.org.nz
