An Australian National Dementia Competition Recognises 6 Young Students
It fills us with pride every time an initiative on the part of young citizens puts the spotlight on our loved older ones, bringing people’s attention to aged persons and raising awareness of the needs of Seniors and the importance of vesting in them the relevance they deserve, even more so when it is older people with dementia we are putting our arms around. This plugs straight into the philosophy of The Hoffmann Method, which holds the intention of changing society’s mindset on Seniors and elderly people.
This National Dementia Storytelling Competition, which is held annually and welcomes makings from university students across this Southern Hemispheric country, has just recognised six of them as winners – the texts they have created will surely get to everyone’s heart and mind.
This competition is a national dementia awareness initiative run by Dementia Training Australia (DTA); Richard Fleming, the Executive Director of DTA, said, “The judges were very impressed by how students, and the winning students in particular, embraced the concept of ‘salutogenesis’”. A salutogenic approach to dementia care is about focusing on factors that support health and well-being –extent to which this is in full compliance with the guiding principle of our methodology-, and opportunities for a person with dementia to live as full, long and happy a life as possible.
The way this was laid out is that 2nd and 3rd-year undergraduate students were asked to explore his type of approach to the care of people with dementia in a medium of their own choice.
The top prizes went to the following students (for anyone interested in delving further into these readings or who wishes to find out about the rest of winners, you may visit the official DTA Webpage):
- Tara Kannan, a student of a MS Bachelor and Doctor of Medicine, took the top prize in her category (2nd year) for her winning article Mind over matter.
- Matthew Boom, who is a Physiotherapy student, took the 3rd-year category prize for his poster Maintaining Adventure with Dementia.
Certainly, just as mush as we would be lost without our Seniors’ presence, guidance and love, they would be nothing short of hopeless withouth the care and interest younger people so lovingly provide them with.