Dementia care

We understand the emotions come with a dementia journey.

Our approach to dementia care

Everyone experiences dementia symptoms differently. That’s why the care and support we provide is individualised to your needs and feelings.

Enliven’s practical approach to advanced dementia care focuses on enriching the lives of people with dementia and reigniting that spark for life. It supports Enliven staff and families to interact in ways that keep people with dementia connected to the world around them.

Enliven has found that providing those with dementia with both the emotional and physical care they need, often results in improvement in language, memory, self-esteem and social interactions.

Residential dementia care

Many of the residents living at Enliven homes experience some memory loss or dementia symptoms. It is part of every day life here and our staff, volunteers and other residents are very understanding, caring and helpful.

For those with more advanced dementia, or for elders who are wandering and finding themselves in unsafe situations, many Enliven homes have secure dementia cottages. The cottages have been designed to reflect a domestic home, rather than a more clinical hospital setting. They include domestic-style kitchens, comfortable lounges and outdoor garden and courtyard spaces.

This purposefully homely design makes residents feel more comfortable and familiar with their surroundings.

Enliven’s homes, in particular the dementia cottages, have an extensive recreation programme and social calendar designed by trained diversional therapists.

Each programme is tailored to the resident’s interests and hobbies; popular activities include music therapy, gardening groups, lunch clubs, sight-seeing trips and puzzles. These programmes have been proven to reduce stress, anxiety, depression, feelings of hopelessness and boredom.

All Enliven homes have some level of dementia care. For more advanced dementia, you’ll find our secure cottages in the following homes:

Respite dementia care

For people living with family carers Enliven offers short-term respite and day programmes. For carers this offers a chance to take a break, recharge your batteries and focus on your own wellbeing.

Taking a break to look after yourself can do wonders for your own mental health. Plus, if you’re feeling recharged and relaxed you will be able to provide much better care and support for your loved one.

Find out more

What is dementia?

Dementia directly affects more than 70,000 people in New Zealand. It’s not one specific disease. Instead, dementia is an umbrella term used to describe a group of conditions that damage our brain.

There are more than 100 types of dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease, fronto-temporal dementia, dementia with lewy bodies and vascular dementia. Dementia is more common for people over the age of 65, but can affect people as young as 45. A person can have a combination of different causes of dementia. Each cause results in different changes in a person’s behaviour. Dementia is a gradual disease so your symptoms are likely to increase over time.

Dementia symptoms commonly include:

loss of memory, initially in relation to recent events, actions and conversations
impaired reasoning or perceiving things the way you used to
reduced language skills and communication issues such as having trouble finding the words to explain something or naming people
loss of daily living skills, including negotiating unfamiliar places or activities.