The Cairns bowls club that’s changing the way we think about dementia

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It’s often the way that big change is born in the most mundane moments.

George went to the bar of his local bowls club, wanting a beer.

But his early-stage dementia got in the way, and he asked for a café latte.

In that moment of human frailty, George started a movement that’s changing the way we understand dementia and the almost half a million Australians affected by it.

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Members of the Edge Hill Memorial Bowls Club realised George needed help to keep playing.

Jill Alexander-Sachse said they set about making the club dementia friendly.

“George and I had been playing bowls all day, and we got into the locker room, and he was talking about the dementia,” she said.

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“Club manager, Lawrence Green, made us do the homework, and we got a $15,000 grant from Dementia Australia.”

They helped staff understand and deal with likely patron behaviours.

And, as Jeannie Wild explains, dementia-related visual perception changes required some significant décor alterations.

“With white-on-white colour schemes, people with dementia can’t discern what’s what, and they just get lost,” she explained.

“We’ve had a couple of people get lost in the bathrooms. We repainted in there, and the bar, changing colours to address that.

“We also changed the crockery from white plates to grey, so they could see the potato and cauliflower. Plates in contrasting colours to the table, coloured cups.”

The club supported the changes, and there was fundraising for equipment to help people play bowls, including a wheelchair with tyres that don’t damage the greens.

Two years later, there’s a well-attended monthly bowls day for people with dementia and their carers.

Jeannie Wild said lawn bowls offers the ideal activity for people with dementia.

“It’s about exercise and being out in the fresh air and the sunshine, and socialising,” she said.

“We realise now that sunshine and socialising are two really important things for people with dementia. It helps them a lot, it slows things down.

“One of the huge issues for them is they’re isolated. They don’t feel comfortable in a public setting because people don’t understand them.

“This is one place they can come, where the carer can come, and everybody is equal and it’s all inclusive.”

Over the past two years, this Edge Hill club initiative has grown into the Far North Queensland Dementia Alliance, a regional support network pushing to expand the scope of dementia-friendly activities and venues.

Jeannie Wild said the Alliance has an ever-increasing role in Cairns and the surrounding region.

“There are so many people living with dementia, some of them diagnosed, a lot of them are not,” she said.

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“It’s a huge, growing thing. It’s massive, a big concern.

“I think we’ve started something really quite special here.

“We’re not the only ones, but getting it spread around, and encouraging other people, that’s really important.”

This week is Dementia Action Week