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Want to 'see' what's it like to live with dementia?

08-08-2024

We are lucky at The PR Company – we work for some really worthwhile causes and organisations.

Recently we introduced you to our Rainbow Storytime client who is suing Brian Tamaki. This time we’d like you to meet EDIE, who will help you understand a bit more of what it’s like to live with dementia.

EDIE is both confronting and educational, as Waikato Times journalist, Sarah Morcom, discovered when we encouraged her to take an EDIE trip.

Just for clarity, EDIE stands for Educational Dementia Immersive Experience. It’s a virtual reality programme, operated under license in New Zealand by Alzheimers NZ, that mimics what someone living with dementia might experience.

You can see what Sarah ‘sees’ here. We also pitched this story in to Newshub journalist, Daz Martin. Here’s his story. Brace yourselves.

Over 70,000 Kiwis are living with dementia now – some researchers say that number’s closer to 100,000 – and cases are expected to jump over 240 per cent in coming years.

Almost every Kiwi family can expect to have some kind of connection to someone living with dementia – and, as we age, many of us may experience the EDIE trip to the bathroom for real.

The PR Company is proud to support the work of Alzheimers NZ, one of whose goals is to create a more dementia friendly New Zealand, where the stigma associated with dementia is greatly reduced and where we are more understanding and accepting of people with this very challenging health condition for which there is no cure, nor treatment.

We’re all getting older. Many of us will personally need that understanding and acceptance in the years to come and we’re pleased to have played even a small part in helping to bring it about.

Next time, meet The Decult Trust and take a look behind the scenes of New Zealand’s coercive landscape of cults.