Meet the Advocate - Danijela Hlis

The following contribution was written by Dementia Advocate Danijela Hlis:

As a Dementia Advocate of two decades, I am always keen to learn more about dementia. 

For this reason, I joined The Australian Community of Practice in Research in Dementia (ACcORD) program whose research is aimed at improving the well-being and health outcomes for people living with dementia and people who support and care for them. The group is funded by the Australian government and consists of researchers, health professionals and consumers.

In November some of us attended the Australian Association of Gerontology (AAG) conference in Hobart and displayed our findings at our booth. 

Photo: Phillip Ross, ACcORD and Danijela Hlis, Dementia Advocate

When I participate at webinars, conferences and research projects, I aim to provide lived experience from the people from diverse background that I care for, advocate for, and love and respect. 

This includes those who revert to their mother tongue and lose any form of English communication, as well as those who are alone in residential care facilities, with no family and no one who represents them. 

The AAG conference was very well attended. 

I made sure I went to hear our friend and Dementia Advocate Theresa Flavin give her talk, as well as my colleague from OPAN/NOPRG Samantha Edmonds. 

We must increase the awareness and understanding of individual advocacy programs and the systemic advocacy that the Dementia Advocates Program addresses especially for people living with dementia and their families. 

People from diverse backgrounds like myself need to be better informed about what advocacy is and how to access it. 

A very important presentation from our ACcORD member Professor Nola Ries on the topic of Dementia Capability for the legal profession was much needed, as capacity for decision making remains one of the open wounds for people living with dementia and their carers. 

The organisers of the conference deserve a warm congratulation and thanks; great speakers, very important topics, fantastic meals, perfect location at the Grand Chancellor in Hobart, and let me not forget – a dance gala dinner and party that left me walking with difficulty next morning.

Dancing Danijela

Photo (L-R): Zuleika Arashiro, FECCA, Professor Yun-Hee Jeon, Step Up for Dementia Research, Danijela Hlis, Dementia Advocate, and Mary Ann Geronimo, FECCA