we're about to take a look at a new village in Hobart which has been designed to help people living with dementia stay happy and healthy for as long as possible advocates for people living with dementia say these dementia inclusive design principles should be used in more communities and services around Australia [Music] from above chironji village looks like a regular suburban housing development but this isn't like any other street the village is specifically tailored to the needs of people living with dementia each house and street has distinctive colors and features you can see as you come
through the cul-de-sac you've got a green planter it's one of those orientation points where people will recognize this is their cul-de-sac residence rooms have memory boxes for familiar items lucio clarity from Glenview Community Services says the village design uses dementia inclusive principles simple things like the color behind the toilet that helps the toilet stand out for people dementia researchers helped develop the model of care at chironji and will monitor the results a lot of that research will be on evaluating how we built this facility how well works for people with dementia again what are those
design features that that work best about half a million Australians live with dementia that's predicted to rise by 100,000 people over the next eight years and reach more than 1 million by 2050 8 right now 1.6 million Australians care for someone living with dementia dementia Australia says more community and aged care services should use for dementia design principles that have influenced the chironji village those are the sorts of things that can make a real difference to somebody living with dementia and being able to live with independent Lima gars father Darcy spent the last year of
his life in an aged care home that was not well adapted to care for his dementia she says more use of dementia inclusive principles would have helped his experience of of being in care might have been a much more positive one he might might even have lived longer than he did Glen Buena T Services hopes lessons from chironji can be adapted elsewhere families who have their loved ones who are living with dementia who can stay at home but are looking for some guidance we have the opportunity to help share the learnings of what have we
done that you can do in your own home the village will open to residents in a few weeks Laura Beavis ABC news you
