Dr Rayne Stroebel has spoken at many international conferences and initiated different approaches to caring for older people and will speak in the Helderberg at the next U3A meeting.
On Wednesday August 7, at 10am at the Strand Town Hall, Dr Rayne Stroebel, who is passionate about changing the narrative of ageing and challenging the notions of inevitable deficit and decline, will address members of the Helderberg U3A and interested visitors in a talk entitled ‘Optimal ageing – with intent. A focus on wellbeing’.
Dr Stroebel will discuss changing the expectation of inexorable decline to a new focus on wellbeing and neuroplasticity – the brain’s ability to form and reorganise synaptic connections, especially in response to learning or experience, or following injury. This can create more positive outcomes for older people.
He will specifically touch on neuro-cognitive impairment, more commonly known as dementia.
A young Rayne Stroebel became aware of ageing, death and dementia when his mother was made the matron of the local care home in their home town of Heidelberg, Western Cape. There he saw her transform an institutional setting into a home for everyone that was filled with laughter, light, fresh flowers, the smell of home-cooked food and set in a beautiful garden.
As a gerontologist (a professional person who studies all aspects of the ageing process and works to support the needs and wants of older adults), Dr Stroebel has initiated the establishment of various organisations to help improve the quality of life of the elderly.
In 1996 he founded Geratec to provide support services to older people in long-term care and in the community. Geratec specialises in caring for individuals in unique ways and focusing on the person behind the symptoms.
Integrity, respect, compassion and innovation are core values.
In 2010 he brought the Eden Alternative philosophy to South Africa to enhance the quality of life of the elderly in care homes and retirement villages. Organisational, personal and physical change is facilitated through educational workshops.
More recently Dr Stroebel returned to university to undertake a course in Dementia Studies at Stirling University in Scotland. He then did his MSc and in 2022 completed his PhD. From this emerged Mind Matters, a consulting business that supports people living with dementia and their care partners to help them navigate life after this diagnosis.
Dr Stroebel reminds us that dementia is a disease of the brain, not of the soul, and Minds Matter aims to provide practical and creative support, including guidance for a good death. “We have to change our minds about people whose minds have changed”, he says.
“We strive to create communities where older people and those who support them can foster authentic, inter-reliable relationships. As Africans, we know and understand Ubuntu – that a person becomes a person through other persons – as the ethos of genuine human care and togetherness.”
Dr Stroebel is a skilled public speaker and educator, and has trained more than 3000 caregivers.
Members enter for free; visitors pay R20 at the door. For further enquiries contact Denise Fourie on 072 211 1173.
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