“I felt like I was the only person in the world going through this”
People living with dementia and those caring for them often feel isolated, which is why talking with someone who has been through a similar experience can be so helpful.
Heather lives with dementia and said joining Dementia Australia’s one-to-one peer support program Connecting Peers has helped her as much as it’s helped those she supports.
“When I heard about Connecting Peers, I thought they were the right sort of people you want to talk to – somebody who’s living with it daily and knows exactly what you’re going through,” she said.
Heather joined the program as a peer leader so she could support other people living with dementia from across Australia, all from her home in regional Victoria.
“I get so much benefit from being a peer leader,” she said. “I am enriched and constantly learning about how people deal with dementia.”
Support is only a phone call away
Lyn, like Heather, is a peer leader.
As a carer for her husband Michael, who lives with dementia in residential aged care, she supports others who care for a loved one.
“I know how alone I felt and I wish I'd known about the program sooner because you feel like you're the only person in the world who’s going through what you're going through,” she said.
“To have somebody on the other end saying: ‘I know exactly what you're going through, I've been there and I've done that’, can be so helpful.”
She said the shared understanding helped her and those she supports to feel less isolated in the experience and to also lighten the load of caring.
“For me, it’s about giving them permission to laugh because sometimes it is such a relief,” Lyn said.
“Some things that happen as a carer are funny so just having somebody else to vent to, and then also see the funny side of it, is so nice – it helps lift somebody’s spirits.”
Best-practice peer support
Dementia Australia commissioned independent consultants NSF Consulting to evaluate the Connecting Peers program to ensure it met best practice for peer support.
The consultants described Connecting Peers as ‘an important program that fills a need for one-on-one peer support for people living with dementia’.
Want to know more?
You can find out more about the Connecting Peers program on our website.
You can also listen to peer leader Heather who shared her story of living with dementia on the exercise episode of Dementia Australia’s Hold the Moment podcast.
