Greek Australian Carol Liavis has used her personal account with her father’s Alzheimer’s in a film aimed at being a new information source for people living with and caring for someone with Alzheimer’s.
Liavis was one of the three people selected to tell their personal stories with Alezheimers for the new educational film Dementia: Taking the next step.
The film features advice on what to do if you receive a diagnosis of dementia from the voices of experience as the focus.
When Liavis’ father was first diagnosed with dementia 16 years ago, she says her and her family felt “overwhelmed”.
“You are just in a state of real numbness and overwhelmed with what lies ahead,” says Liavis.
“It is very daunting and you’re at your worst state with feeling grief and fear, thinking and knowing that it was going to change our lives significantly and what was going to become of my dad.”
She says that if her family had a resource such as this DVD, that would give the personal element to the dementia diagnosis and a personal account of the journey with this disease, that they would have said themselves “a lot of confusion and angst”.
“I believe the film really offers the audience the flexibility to view it and review it because often the information is giving to you verbally from a doctor or a specialist and you can’t really absorb the enormity of it, so by using real life references and these shared experiences it pretty much walks you through the early stages of the disease.”
The film which is available free of charge on DVD also features medical comments by dementia specialist, Associate Professor Michael Woodward, who provides an overview of dementia in terms of how to understand what is happening, how to make adjustments to deal with the diagnosis and how to get help.
Copies of the DVD will be made available to Cognitive Dementia and Memory Services (CDAMS) around Victoria as well as other Victorian health organisations assisting people in the early stages of a diagnosis. The DVD will be shared with all other state and territory offices of Alzheimer’s Australia as a Victorian led initiative
