Dementia North - Lakes

Have you booked your ticket to:
“How Will I Ever Get Through This? Finding Meaning, Connection and Strength while Living With Dementia.”

Living with dementia | mate wareware – or supporting someone who is – can bring ongoing uncertainty, exhaustion, grief and change.

In this live Q&A with Winifred Henderson (Senior Educator, Dementia New Zealand), Dr Lucy Hone will explore what helps people stay connected, compassionate, and emotionally resourced through long and difficult journeys.

📅 Wednesday, 3 June 2026
⏰ 10am – 11am
💻 Online via Zoom (recording provided afterwards)
🎟 Free for care partners and whānau | $50 for individual professionals

👉🏼 Book here: https://dementia.nz/dr-lucy-hone-online-webinar/

📗 You can also purchase Dr Lucy Hone’s new book here: https://linktr.ee/drlucyhone

Upcoming Online Event | Dr Lucy Hone | Dementia New Zeland Join us on Wednesday, 3rd June 2026 for 'How Will I Ever Get Through This? Finding Meaning, Connection and Strength while Living With Dementia.' Presented by Dr. Lucy Hone.

When someone is living with dementia | mate wareware, it can be easy to assume every change is part of the condition.

For Carol, it was noticing her husband Dennis feeling his way from chair to chair, no longer able to pick up his cup of tea or use his knife and fork.

For Elizabeth, it was seeing her husband Jim lose confidence reading the newspaper he had started every morning with for years.

In both cases, the cause wasn’t dementia alone. It was cataracts.

After surgery, Dennis stopped feeling his way down the hallway. Jim was able to enjoy reading the paper again and watching birds move through the garden outside his window.

For both Waikato couples, it reinforced the importance of continuing to ask questions when something doesn’t seem right.

And for both men, it’s simply the joy of getting on with the parts of their day they enjoy most.

👉🏼 Read Carol and Elizabeth’s story here:

Carol & Elizabeth: Seeing The Difference | Dementia NZ When Dennis began feeling his way from chair to chair, Carol knew something had changed. For Elizabeth, the signs were different — Jim was falling more often and finding it harder to read the morning paper. Two Waikato stories of how cataract surgery brought back the small daily things.

Families across Aotearoa are raising concerns about access to respite care.

For people supporting someone with dementia | mate wareware, respite can mean the difference between coping and reaching exhaustion. But many care partners are finding that there are very limited options available when they need support.

Hamilton care partner Alison Fagan has been speaking publicly about the issue after struggling to access planned respite care for her husband, Neil. Through those conversations, it has become clear that similar experiences are being felt well beyond the Waikato.

Alison is now hoping to connect with others across the country who are facing the same challenges, and encourage wider discussion about respite access for families supporting people with dementia.

If you would like to share your experience, you can contact Alison directly:

📧 [email protected]

You can also raise the issue with your local MP.

For local Dementia support, reach out to one of our dementia advisors.

👉🏼 https://dementia.nz/dementia-lakes/

🎬 A heartfelt thank you to the Rotary Club of Remuera for hosting a special screening of Caterpillar in support of Dementia Auckland.

Marsha, CE of Dementia North, was honoured to meet Leigh and Betsy and attend this beautiful and moving film event alongside so many members of our community. We’re incredibly grateful to everyone who came along, the theatre was completely booked out! Your support helps make a real difference for people living with dementia mate wareware, their whānau, and carers across our region. 💙

Thank you for your generosity, kindness, and commitment to supporting dementia awareness and care in our community.

Caterpillar - Official Trailer A debut feature film from Chelsie Preston Crayford.Set in a run-down Wellington villa in 2003, Caterpillar follows three women living separate lives under on...

Talking about continence can feel uncomfortable - but for many people living with dementia | mate wareware and their care partners, it’s part of everyday life.

Our friends at of Auckland have developed a guide to help people better understand and manage continence challenges, with practical advice shaped by people with lived experience.

It includes information on accessing support, understanding the system, and strategies that may help at home.

📖 Access the guide here:

Guide To Promoting And Managing Continence For People Living With Dementia | Mate Wareware (2024 University Of Auckland) | Dementia NZ (2024 University of Auckland)

Too often, families leave a dementia diagnosis without the information they need to act.

Not because it isn’t available, but because it’s delivered at a time when people are still processing what they’ve just been told.

That gap shows up later.
At home. Between appointments. In moments that are hard to interpret or respond to.

Dementia Navigator was developed to support that space.

It’s a free, online education hub with short, structured modules covering diagnosis, early planning, behaviours, and what to expect as things change. It’s designed to sit alongside clinical care and local support, giving people something they can return to when they’re ready.

What we’re seeing already is how it’s being used in practice.
📖 GPs are recommending it between appointments to help families understand diagnoses and come back with clearer questions.
📖 Community teams are using it to build shared understanding, rather than repeating the same explanations.
📖 Care partners are using it to turn uncertainty into practical steps at home.

As one GP put it, it’s becoming a trusted referral point that supports conversations beyond a standard consultation.

For those working across dementia care, it offers a consistent way to support understanding – regardless of location, time, or service access.

💻 Explore Dementia Navigator here: https://dementianavigator.nz/

This month’s newsletter includes a few examples of how support continues to evolve across our region – from our new partnership with Here to Help U in Waikato, Taupō and Tūrangi, through to counselling support for care partners and plans for future online support groups outside standard business hours.

Click here for more: https://zcu.nz/r04G?m=0

Fiona’s mum was in her early 50s when something started to change.

At first, it didn’t look like dementia | mate wareware. It was put down to anxiety, depression, even menopause. It took time before her family got the answer they were searching for.

By then, they were trying to make sense of what was happening as they went, without clear answers about what lay ahead.

For Fiona, this was all unfolding while she was starting her own family.

💬 “I had just had a baby, and I was also looking after Mum… I remember feeling so overwhelmed and exhausted.”

Young onset dementia can be difficult to recognise early. Many families find themselves piecing things together over time.

Fiona has chosen to share her story, reflecting on what that period was like for her and her whānau. 🧡

👉🏼 Read Fiona’s story here:

A Daughter’s Experience Of Young Onset Dementia | Our Mind Matters Magazine | Dementia NZ Fiona Faithfull remembers her mum, Carol, as intelligent, a community leader, and the most patient, unjudgmental mother. But when Carol developed young onset

Join Dementia New Zealand for a Dementia Talk, How to stop worrying.

This presentation will focus on learning to reduce worry and other useful techniques which will help to reduce stress and distress and help to diminish or prevent depression and anxiety for care partners and whānau supporting someone with dementia | mate wareware.

Learn practical ideas and self-help concepts to add to your toolbox of skills to navigate life with dementia.

This in-depth education session is suitable for care partners, whānau and health professionals.

📅 Friday, 15th May
⏰ 10am - 12 noon
💻 Online via Zoom

🎟 Free for carers and whānau | $50 + GST for an individual professional (includes Certificate of Attendance)

Book now:

How To Stop Worrying | Dementia NZ Following our Dementia Talk in April on Understanding Anxiety and Depression, we now offer a follow up session about How to stop worrying.

🌸 Thinking of all the mums this Mother’s Day.

To those living with dementia | mate wareware, and to those supporting them as care partners and whānau – today can hold many different moments.

For some, there will be time together. For others, things may feel a little unfamiliar. A visit might go smoothly, or it might feel harder than expected.

You might be met with a warm smile. Or a pause, as she tries to place you. Or a quiet moment, sitting side by side.

However today unfolds, there’s no right or wrong way to move through it.

And for those who are remembering their mum, or the relationship you once had, we are holding you in our thoughts today too. 💞