Applications now open for Dogs4Dementia

Announcement posted by Assistance Dogs Australia 30 Jul 2015

The first program of its kind in the southern hemisphere

Applications now open for Dogs4Dementia - first program of its kind in the southern hemisphere

Assistance Dogs Australia is excited to announce a new pilot program Dogs4Dementia – the first in the southern hemisphere of its kind.

Partnering with HammondCare and Alzheimer Scotland, Dogs4Dementia will see trained Assistance Dogs being placed in family homes, where one person has been diagnosed with dementia.

Director of HammondCare’s Dementia Centre, Associate Professor Colm Cunningham, said, “Dogs 4 Dementia will assist with prompting tasks, hydration reminders, increasing socialisation, improved health and mobility support. We anticipate there will be a range of other benefits, which is why our evaluation of the project will include narratives and film clips from the perspective of the person with dementia and their carer.”

Some of the helpful things dementia assistance dogs can do include:

Reminding a person to take their medications, eat or drink
Recognising a specific movement a person would make when in distress and push an emergency button on the phone or bark loudly for help
Prompting a person to read a note left by a carer
Opening cupboards and drawers
Turning the lights off after people have fallen asleep
Leading a person home after a walk, if they become disorientated

Beyond helping to perform important daily tasks, a dementia dog can become a constant companion and source of reassurance for a person living with dementia and their carer.

This type of program has only been trialled once before in the world, the DementiaDogs program in Scotland.

Assistance Dogs Australia Programs Manager is very excited to be bringing this program to Australia, “We are very excited to be a part of this pilot program and this partnership, it is very important that we get the best of both worlds; the specialism that HammondCare already have with dementia, and the specialism that we have in the field of human-animal interaction.”

Applications are now open in NSW and VIC. For more information please visit www.assistancedogs.org.au.

Assistance Dogs Australia: Founded in 1996, Assistance Dogs Australia is a national charity which trains Labradors and Golden Retrievers to help people with disabilities, providing them with greater freedom and independence. Dogs are placed free of charge, to a wide range of clients, including families with autism, post-traumatic stress sufferers and wheelchair users. It costs in excess of $27,000 to train and place a dog, and Assistance Dogs Australia receives no government funding. For more information about Assistance Dogs Australia please visit www.assistancedogs.org.au.