Hard Topics, soft landings.
Why We’re Here
Dementia can turn up in the middle of everything else. Work, kids, a mortgage, study, or a life you’d already built and had plans for. Traditional support isn’t always designed for your life stage, your schedule, or your social world.
One evening a month we come together, have drink and something to eat, listen to a dementia expert, and give you the time to connect and talk to people living a similar experience.
Led by Lived Experience & Research
The Dementia Care Social Club is run by two women, both with lived experience. Katya is a dementia researcher at UNSW. Monique is a dementia doula who guides and supports people living with dementia and their families. Between us we sit across research, the care sector, and community, which is how we find speakers who know their stuff and can talk like human beings.
The club is named after The Sapphire, the underground jazz supper club Katya’s dad and stepmum have been going to for the last 30 years. They know your name at the door, and they know where you like to sit.
The idea of knowing your name at the door is where this started. Between us we’ve spent years attending dementia education, Monique as a dementia doula sitting with families, Katya presenting the research from the front of the room. What we kept noticing is that those sessions aren’t often built for carers or people living with dementia who are younger, still working, or both. So, we created a space that we’d want to come to ourselves.
“It feels like a ray of hope. It allows me to socialise and laugh, meet new people, and re-examine my own journey.”
— Person living with younger onset dementia
What We’re Trying To Do
Turn research into something you can actually use right now.
Give you tools for the situation you’re in now, not the one you’ll be in eventually.
Treat support as something dignified, rather than a rescue mission.
Introduce you to people you’ll still be texting in a year.