Group Homes Australia to host 33 dementia retreats

More than 400,000 Australians are estimated to be living with dementia, according to Dementia Australia.

Of those living with dementia, over two in three live in the community. However, they are rarely offered the essential support needed to adapt to a post-diagnosis dementia life — even though the majority will live in their own homes for years.

Now, dementia care provider Group Homes Australia’s Rementia Together Retreat program is hoping to transform post-diagnostic care by developing their retreat framework based on repositioning “dementia” (to be “without the mind” in Latin) to “rementia” (to “return to the mind” in Latin).

Group Homes Australia is one of the 10 providers to deliver a government-funded program in a retreat format. The group is planning to host 33 dementia retreats, fully funded by the Australian Department of Health and Aged Care, across Sydney and rural NSW over the next three years. Each retreat accommodates five couples.

The five-day program — framed as a ‘retreat’ rather than a ‘respite’ — is designed to equip people living with dementia and their chosen support partner with the emotional, psychological and practical skills to live a fulfilling, empowered life post-diagnosis. The retreats involve leaders exploring what will bring each individual closer to their own sense of self and, consequently, rementia.

The concept of rementia has been revived by Group Homes Australia’s Founder and Executive Director, Tamar Krebs. “The number of people in Australia living with dementia is expected to grow to 800,000 by 2058. To support this growing group, we all need to think about dementia differently by focusing on what gives the person purpose, meaning and relevance,” Krebs said.

“We need to help people live beyond their diagnosis. We need to connect them to who they are and give them a sense of rementia — of returning to relevance and purpose and meaning.”

The program was co-designed by Group Homes Australia and people living with dementia under the mentorship of leading dementia researcher Dr Meredith Gresham. The program is run by Program Director Donna Ward, whose own mother was diagnosed with dementia but lacked the essential early post-diagnosis support. Ward shares how her mother and siblings would have embraced a retreat where they could have received knowledge and support.

“For most of us, the dementia diagnosis is terrifying for both the person being diagnosed and their loved ones. The Rementia Together Retreat is designed specifically to overcome this fear. It’s been carefully curated to provide real, lasting change in how both people understand dementia; to flip the script on its head, and channel the fear into empowerment,” Ward said.