The best thing about our community is, our community. As the weather warms up and we move towards silly season, more and more activities and festivals will celebrate who we are as a community. 

The Kazador, Changing Tides and Kiama Unplugged are just a few examples of the diversity and vibrancy within our community.

But life is not just about festivals, fun and Fillmore’s. 

This week Brooke Pittman covered the ten-year anniversary of Dementia Inclusive Kiama. What started out as a pilot partnership between researchers at the University of Wollongong, Alzheimer’s Australia and Kiama Council a decade ago, has continued to grow despite the challenges of funding, COVID-19 and the one thing that no one has enough of – time. 

The stigma around dementia, cognitive decline and the associated mental health challenges for both sufferers and carers, still exists today. That Dementia Inclusive Kiama have been advocating, supporting and increasing awareness over the last ten years is a testament to everyone involved in the project and every part of our community that has supported and included themselves in the discussion. 

Over the last ten years a lot has changed in this space. At that time, diagnosis was not as accurate as it is today and the lack of education and awareness facilitated a stigma around the condition and this often resigned sufferers to exclusion from society – further exacerbating the decline of their health and wellbeing. 

Now, organisations like Dementia Inclusive Kiama understand the social implications of dementia and the importance of awareness and education to ensure that sufferers can have the best quality of life, whilst living with dementia.

So, as we crawl towards the end of the year and spend more time with family and loved ones, some of whom might be suffering from terrible diseases like dementia, know that our community is full of people who are sufferers, carers and supporters.

And The Bugle’s View is that our community is so much better off because of them.