Press Release: Silver Chain : hipages lends a helping hand to Silver Chain for dementia support

• Over 425,000 Australians are currently living with dementia • 36,500 West Australians are expected to be living with dementia by 2020 • hipages sends crew of trusted tradies to Silver Chain's Rockingham Social Centre in Western Australian to enhance a dementia friendly space 23 February 2018 , Perth. hipages proudly announces its latest community project, partnering with not-for-profit community health and aged care provider, Silver Chain, to create a dementia-friendly environment for clients visiting the organisation's Rockingham Social Centre in Perth, Western Australia. According to research from Dementia Australia, dementia is the second leading cause of death in Australia with an estimated 425,416 individuals currently living with dementia. It is estimated that by 2036, there will be 84,161 individuals living with dementia in Western Australia alone. Silver Chain's Social Centre offer a comfortable, home-like setting for the organisation's clients to socialise, relax and have fun with a range of activities to keep them active and engaged. Many of the clients who attend the Social Centres are living with dementia. The team at hipages recently engaged a 'tradie crew' of local tradespeople in Western Australia, to complete a full renovation of the garden within Silver Chain's Rockingham Social Centre, making it a more dementia-friendly environment. hipages managed the supply of all required materials, with the renovation including the build of a new cafe shed to be used by the clients for social interactions such as selling bread, serving coffees and selling veggies from the garden. A total of eight licensed tradespeople donated over 100 hours of their time to support this project. Elements of the design and build which were essential to ensuring the overall space was dementia-friendly included the installation of non-slip matting on the floors of the cafe shed, safe flooring in front of the shed for tables and chairs, as well as bench height shelves to serve from. Other renovation elements of the project included a clean-up of the side garden with new flowers and plants, as well as maintenance and a clean-up of the raised garden beds which allows the garden to be used for the growing and selling of veggies and flowers. Speaking about the partnership, hipages CEO and co-founder, David Vitek said: "Dementia is sadly a nationwide issue impacting a significant percentage of Australians. We want to do our part in helping to shine a spotlight on the important work Silver Chain does, and help its clients living with dementia to socialise by providing purpose-built facilities outside of their own home environment. "The hipages business was built on the philosophy of helping Aussies get things done more easily, and we are proud to work with a team of local, trusted tradies who've donated their time to make life for patients living with dementia more enjoyable." Adding to the burden of the disease is the extortionate cost of caring for people living with dementia, which Flinders University researchers recently estimated to cost over $88,000 per year on average. Silver Chain believes that with the right support, people living with dementia can live their best life confidently and offers a range of services to help individuals do so. Silver Chain, Social Centre Coordinator, Mandy Holmshaw, said all the organisation's services are dementia friendly, particularly the Social Centres, where the personalities of clients living with dementia really come to life. "We are always looking for ways to help people living with dementia stay at home, in their community, and we know our Social Centre staff, facilities and programs help our clients immensely. They are also a much need source of respite for their family and carers. "Thank you to hipages and their tradie crew who helped transform our Rockingham Social Centre into an even more dementia friendly space. Our clients will use the café shed to serve tea and coffee and sell the veggies they grow. This environment will enable clients to learn new skills and maintain old ones to empower them to remain active and make decisions. All of the local, qualified and licensed hipages tradespeople involved in the project donated their time, working pro-bono to help renovate Silver Chain's Social Centre in Rockingham. A number of local businesses also showed their support by donating necessary materials for the job. hipages and Silver Chain would like to thank Remastone for donating the limestone blocks and caps for the paving in front of the cafe shed and Benara Nurseries for their donation of the synthetic turf and reinforcement pegs to beautify the surroundings of the cafe shed. We would also like to thank Bunnings for donating plants, a bench, a mailbox and a fence, and Dulux for all the paint. hipages has been partnering with a number of its tradespeople on similar community-based projects over the last 12 months. The hipages team has sourced local 'tradie crews' around the country to execute community projects on a pro-bono basis, where tradespeople donate their time for labour while hipages covers all the costs and supply arrangements for the necessary materials. A previous project included the construction of a dream cubby house for the children of The Shepherd Centre in Sydney's Inner West, which provides services for children with hearing loss. hipages will continue to work with its local 'tradie crews' to provide much needed support for other local community project across the country. - ENDS - About hipages hipages is transforming the way people get things done around their home. Founded in an Aussie garage 14 years ago by two great mates, hipages helps Aussies find verified and licensed tradies in their local area while helping tradies grow their business through innovative technology, finding them more local jobs, which they can manage on the go. With over 90,000 tradies listed in 1,300 categories and over 100,000 jobs posted by Australian consumers every month, hipages is Australia's number one place to hire qualified, trusted and verified tradespeople - www.homeimprovementpages.com.au. About Silver Chain Silver Chain is a not-for-profit organisation delivering community health and care services across Australia, helping people of all ages receive the care they need to remain happy and healthy at home. With over 3,550 staff and 280 volunteers Silver Chain is able assist more than 98,000 Australians in Western Australia, Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia to remain living in their homes and community every year - https://www.silverchain.org.au/wa/. For more information, please contact: hipages Guillaume Papillon, PR & Communications manager guillaumepapillon@hipages.com.au 0405 074 109 DEC PR Luisa, Jennifer, Summer or Duyen hipages@decpr.com.au (02) 8014 5033