Spark plugs and an old lawnmower engine are helping dementia patients
Creating meaningful, sensory activities for people living with dementia can be challenging, particularly when many traditional options feel more suited to children than adults with a lifetime of lived experience behind them.
Creating meaningful, sensory activities for people living with dementia can be challenging, particularly when many traditional options feel more suited to children than adults with a lifetime of lived experience behind them.
At Cooinda Aged Care Facility in Coonabarabran, a specially made activity board is helping bridge that gap, offering residents something familiar, purposeful and real to engage with.
The idea was brought to life by Mitchell Brain, a Coonabarabran local who recently returned to his hometown and signed up as a volunteer at the facility.
"I just wanted to create something people would recognise and be engaged in,"
Mr Brain said.
Measuring 1.8 metres wide and 90 centimetres high, the activity board sits under a shelter in the facility's gardens and is packed with about 30 different hands-on activities.
"The basic idea is to have people engaged in what's on the board," he said.
"So you push and pull and press things."
The activity board encourages engagement, movement and familiarity for dementia patients. (Supplied: Cooinda Coonabarabran)
Work that still matters
Built using real mechanical components, the board includes items such as spark plugs and parts from an old lawnmower engine.
The materials were chosen to reflect the backgrounds of many residents.
"I made sure it was safe and wanted it to last forever," Mr Brain said.
"So I made it very strong and sturdy."
Sharon Edmonstone, lifestyle coordinator at Cooinda, said the idea came from conversations about residents' former working lives.
"Often we have residents who were farmers and they are still wanting to check on machinery and fix things that need fixing," she said.
"So we discussed an idea of putting something together that would allow our ex-farmers to get up and go to work."
While commercial activity boards do exist, Ms Edmonstone said many were unsuitable for adults.
"They are very childlike, so we were more after something that adults could use," she said.
"Our residents can now go out and fix things like spark plugs, an old lawnmower engine; things to replicate what they might have done on the farm.
"We have a couple of residents who were farmers and they love going out to it to fix things and muck around with it. It sparks their cognition and provides a bit of dignity to our residents because it's real."