Dementia Care Social Club: Where hard topics get soft landings

<p><strong>Bringing Community Back Together | S2E3 | Dr Katya Numbers &amp; Monique Pockran |Co founders Dementia Care Social Club</strong></p><p>&quot;I haven’t had to be myself for the past two years, I didn’t know that before I came here&quot; .Dementia Care Social Club attendee</p><p>What if dementia care wasn’t only about services, appointments and managing a diagnosis, butabout how we continue to include people in our families, friendships, neighbourhoods and communities?</p><p>In this episode, Samantha Heron sits down with <strong>Dr Katya Numbers</strong>, researcher and educator at UNSW’s Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing (CHeBA), and <strong>Monique Pockran</strong>, dementia doula and founder of Dahlia Dementia Guidance &amp; Support. </p><p>All 3 work in some capacity with people living with Dementia, <em>and</em> it has also touched all of their personal lives. </p><p>Together, Katya and Monique are the co-founders of the <strong>Dementia Social Club</strong>  a growing community bringing people living with dementia, carers, families, researchers, professionals and interested community members together to learn, connect and feel less alone.</p><p>It is a place where, as they beautifully describe it, <strong>hard topics get soft landings.</strong></p><p>This conversation explores dementia well beyond a diagnosis:</p><ul><li><strong>Katya</strong> shares how her professional workin  memory and ageing became deeplypersonal when her own father began showing signs of dementia,  and why those signs don’t always look like thememory loss we typically associate with the condition.</li></ul><ul><li><strong>Monique</strong> reflects on her father’s journeywith Alzheimer’s disease and how her experiences as both a daughter and dementia professional shaped her determination to help families navigate whatcomes after diagnosis.</li></ul><ul><li>We exploreyounger onset dementia and why changes in behaviour, personality, spatialawareness or processing can sometimes be missed — particularly when dementiasimply isn’t on the radar.</li></ul><ul><li>We unpack the difference between dementia and Alzheimer’s disease and why understanding themany different forms of dementia matters.</li></ul><ul><li>We talk openly about the enormous gap that can exist after diagnosis: a family’s world has just changed, yet they may be sent home with information, referralsand a follow-up appointment months away, left trying to work out what comesnext.</li></ul><p>And then we talk about