We are pleased to present Enjoying Life With Dementia, a 2023 Australian short by William Yeates. Rather than offering a conventional narrative, the film explores themes of dementia, cognitive processing disability, motivation and inclusion. It speaks to achievement, group activity and mental health, inviting viewers to consider how people with disability are supported to pursue goals. As part of the Focus on Ability International Short Film Festival, this work sits alongside films that highlight the abilities, experiences and achievements of people with disability. It is a thoughtful, respectful piece that contributes to conversations about community, participation and the many ways people find meaning and purpose.
Growing up on the northern beaches of Sydney, surflife saving has always been a big part of my life. But this all changed in August 2019 when I was diagnosed with younger onset Alzheimer's disease at the age of 59. As a result, I stopped being a volunteer surflife saver and coaching competitors in an event known as Champion Lifesaver. This video is about my journey, not just in returning as a volunteer surflife saver and coaching competitors, but how this decision also allowed me to step out of my comfort zone and start working towards achieving a number of personal goals that I'd set myself. Hi, I'm Erica. I'm Bill's support coordinator with the NDIS. I met Bill when COVID started and we were out walking in the community. He was walking his dog and we got to chat and learn about his diagnosis and what he wanted to achieve within the NDIS framework. We understood that he's got a couple of goals and one of the goals is to return as a volunteer lifesaver and the other one is to compete in Master Swimming and Surf Lifesaving Championships, both of which Bill has never done before. So it's really exciting to be able to support him to achieve these goals with the team of allied health specialists. It's great to have Bill back on the team. We do understand his limitations after being diagnosed with Alzheimer's. It's really good for us to have Bill in our patrol. He's a great team member and it's important that we get him involved and he loves being involved. Bill approached me early on and the thing I noticed mostly was that he had an obvious cognitive impairment in that you could understand what he was trying to get across, but he didn't have a great ability to communicate his ideas, but what he wanted to do was to transition back to competitive swimming, which was a big undertaking, but one that I thought was a great challenge for him. And together we put together a neurocognitive training program which included things like body awareness, stability, reflex action and coordination through exercises that we do here at the gym, the ones that he can use and help support his ability to swim. So what we've noticed over the course of two and a half years is that Bill's physical abilities and all the physical aspects of our training have improved out of sight, but not only that, his cognitive abilities and his mental health have also improved and that's just evidenced in just the way that Bill's able to communicate and express himself on a day to day basis. So working with Bill has changed my whole perception of working with people with Alzheimer's. I think generally the perception of Alzheimer's is that it's a condition that generally just affects memory, but there's a whole range of physical impairments such as declining balance, declining coordination and also declining gait speed. So when we started working with Bill, we engaged in an exercise program to target Bill's balance, coordination, strength and gait. He's now progressed to working on running with his newfound confidence. So Bill's ability to now progress his running has enabled him to participate in his Competitive Masters life-saving events, which is invaluable for his overall health and well-being. Coaching competitors to champion life-saver is not only a challenge, but it also gives you an enormous amount of personal satisfaction, especially when our competitors are on the podium receiving a medal for the very first time. Even though Bill has Alzheimer's, he is still honestly amazing as a coach. He gets on the floor and with all the theory and resuscitation, he answers every single question, demonstrates everything we need to know and it's honestly like the best we could possibly ask for and he gives us 100% every time without a doubt. I think it's really great that Bill has this goal of competing next to us and championing life-saver. It really gives us something to aspire towards. It's just a bit of an inspiration really. You see him out there on the boards and you just kind of think, well, if he can do it, then surely I can do it and it's good how he can apply it for his own competition. So he's also experiencing that side of things as well as coaching. So yeah, I think it's a really good goal to have for him. Since knowing Bill from the start of COVID, it's been really, really wonderful seeing him build such a connection with the local community and it's really good for mental health and for his diagnosis to get out and chat to people and just establish beautiful relationships and that's one of the key components of our local community as well. Without the support and encouragement from my family, friends and champion life-savers, I would not have been able to achieve any of my goals.
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Enjoying Life With Dementia by William Yeates (2023)
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by William Yeates - OPEN ENTRANT DOCUMENTARIES
