Biography
Christine has over 30 years experience working in the community development field in local government and community organisations. She is the Director Community Development at the City of Melville in Western Australia. Melville is recognised as a leader with age friendly communities and has had involvement since 2007.
Under Christine’s leadership, Melville has been recognised for their innovative practices that include membership to the World Health Organisation Global Network of Age-Friendly Communities; leading community and neighbourhood planning practice; innovative responses to community health issues, community safety and community engagement including participatory budgeting projects.
She is Chair of the Western Australian Local Government Professionals Network for Age Friendly Communities, and also represents local government on the Age Friendly Interagency Group convened by the Western Australian Department for Communities.
The Age Friendly Communities model in Western Australia has been undertaken for the last 10 years and the State is a recognised world leader in this field. The model is one of partnership and collaboration between two tiers of government – state and local governments. It has also proved to be compatible with the Dementia Friendly approach which works in collaboration with the age friendly communities’ model.
Young, C.
Paper
Integrating Age Friendly and Dementia Friendly – The Western Australian Approach to Age Friendly Communities.
Western Australia has had an established approach to the World Health Organisation’s Age Friendly Communities for ten years that has seen the State recognised as an Affiliate Member for the Global Network Age Friendly Communities in June 2017. A key component to the model is the collaborative and coordinated approach between two levels of government – State and Local which has provided strength and sustainability to the way that the work is applied.
Within this context the importance of communities being Dementia Friendly was seen as an opportunity to integrate this approach within the Age Friendly Communities framework. This meant it is not a decision about which approach to implement but rather how can we strengthen this approach by incorporating a Dementia Friendly focus and practises within the Age Friendly Communities framework.
The City of Melville is a metropolitan Local Government Authority in the Perth region who is using this way of working to provide a range of opportunities for community benefit having a focus on being dementia friendly within the context of age friendly communities.
The presentation will share details of how this integration between dementia friendly and age friendly communities has occurred within the local government (municipality) context. It will provide practical examples relating to the City of Melville’s approach of partnerships with Alzheimer’s Western Australia and other community groups that clearly demonstrate dementia friendly practice within the broader context of age friendly communities. A focus will be on the inclusion of dementia friendly principles for age friendly businesses. The presentation will also showcase the use of short film to promote people living well with dementia in an age friendly community.
