About Small Acts of Love 

"Love is a skill – not just an emotion or feeling … one of our gravest errors around relationships is to imagine that there aren’t things we can get wiser or better at … we must study love the way we study anything else that matters." Alain de Botton

Small Acts of Love recognises that beyond romanticised ideals of love there are skills that can help us to renegotiate relationships and rebuild connections when someone we love has dementia. These actions to renegotiate and rebuild are Small Acts of Love. Love matters in the lives of people with dementia – and so, as Alain de Botton said, we must study it. We need to be more aware, more valuing and better skilled. All of us. ​​

On Valentine's Day 2017 the Inaugural National Dementia and Love Symposium was held in Ballarat. All the speakers were people with dementia, their family and friends.  The Symposium presented love as a common ground we all share and demonstrated the ways in which focusing on love can help to ensure that people with dementia are valued and respected. Love is a powerful emotion in our lives – everyone experiences it, it gives life and makes us human. 

Small Acts of Love was presented by Celebrate Ageing in Partnership with the Australian Association of Gerontology and was supported by Alzheimer's Australia Vic and The City of Ballarat, The Ballarat North Community House and Carers Respite Service at Ballarat Health Service. On this page we share resources from the Symposium and our other work on dementia and love.

Plenary address

One of the plenary highlights of the Symposium was a video from Hon Ken Wyatt, Minister for Aged Care. The video address and the plenary presentation by Dr Catherine Barrett are provided below.

Excerpt from the video address by Hon Ken Wyatt AM, MP

Plenary address by Dr Catherine Barrett

Pre Symposium commitment to recognising the importance of love in the lives of people with dementia.

Symposium photos

Thank you Lisa White, The Social Photographer for these beautiful photos from the Symposium.

Symposium reflections 

We are very grateful to Symposium delegates Mary Wickham, Geradine Cooney and Mary-Faeth Chenery for their reflections on the Symposium and permission to post these.

Reflections on the Symposium by Mercy Nun/Poet Mary Wickham

Reflections on the Symposium by Mercy Nun Geradine Cooney

Reflections on the Symposium by Mary-Faeth Chenery

The Book 

In April 2018 we will launch an edited book with chapters authored by Symposium presenters. The book concept was launched at the Small Acts of Love Symposium with eight authors reading extracts from their chapters (see images below).

The films 

Two films will be produced from footage shot at the Symposium by Film Maker Andy Ferguson and will be launched in April 2018.

Small Acts of Love Wall

A Small Acts of Love Wall is an activity for communities and service providers to raise awareness of the simple things that can be done to build relationships and connections. It uses an Appreciative Inquiry approach to focus on ‘what works’ to raise awareness of how change is possible and can be simple. It is hoped that engaging service providers or community members in reflecting on practical strategies will help to create more dementia friendly communities - because in essence participants are asking people with dementia and their families about what they experience and what they need. 

In the section below we have included some of the suggestions that were identified in a service providers workshop at the Dementia and Love Symposium. 

​To set up a Small Acts of Love Wall in your service or community we suggest you:

• Talk to people with dementia (and their families) who access your service or live in your community and ask them: what are the challenges in their relationships with others and what are their strategies for addressing these challenges
• Read The Small Acts of Love book (when this is published) to identify further challenges and strategies
• Watch the Small Acts of Love films (when these are available) to identify challenges and strategies
• Set up a display in a communal area of your service or community building
• Provide simple instructions and A4 sheets for people to document their Small Acts of Love
• Provide a couple of examples for starters
• Look for patterns – and opportunities to consolidate these. 

Dementia & policing 

In preparation for the symposium an opportunity was identified to host a dementia and policing workshop – because community members began to share stories about policing and the safety of people with dementia - particularly in the context of intimate relationships. A decision was made to circulate a short online survey to capture the key issues and suggested strategies that could inform the workshop. ​The reaction was powerful - 55 responses in 10 days. Data from the survey and the workshop was analysed and a report is available here.

​Survey participants were asked the following four questions:

1. Is there a story about a person with dementia, that involved the police or that involved the person’s safety or rights being compromised, that you would like to share?
2. What do you think the police need to know about people with dementia?
3. What do you think people with dementia and their families need to know about how the police can assist people with dementia?
4. Are there any other comments or suggestions that you would like to make?

The workshop was facilitated by the Symposium Coordinator, Dr Catherine Barrett and Leading Constable Janine Walker from Victoria Police. The workshop was attended by nine police officers from Ballarat, Bacchus Marsh and Melbourne and around 80 Symposium participants - pictured here (photo by Lisa White (c) thesocialphotographer.com.au).

More info

If you would like more information on Small Acts of Love please contact Museum Curator Dr Catherine Barrett.