Anne Tudor OAM, Class of 1967

Service to the Community Award

Anne Tudor OAM graduated from Sacred Heart College in 1967 before completing a specialised two-year teacher training program in Sydney. Then, she moved to St Mary’s Vuvu, near Rabaul in Papua New Guinea. Anne returned to Melbourne in 1973 and taught at St Paul’s Secondary College in Altona North. She loved the cultural diversity there and held various roles including Student Counsellor, and she was the Deputy Principal for her last five years. Anne continued to improve her qualifications through night courses and after completing her fourth year in psychology she knew she wanted to be a practising psychologist.

In 1991 Anne and her partner, a teacher of the deaf, decided to move to Ballarat to support her parents. Anne’s mother had Alzheimer’s and Vascular dementia and it was becoming more difficult for her father to support her mother without help. At this time Anne was offered a Commonwealth Government scholarship and a full-time place in the University of Melbourne’s Master’s Program in Clinical Psychology. Anne undertook both from Ballarat despite the amount of travel she had to undertake.

After graduating, Anne worked at Ballarat Health Services as a Clinical Psychologist for 12 years, in part to support patients and clients impacted by dementia and nursing home staff charged with their care. Finally, five years of part-time training in Melbourne at the Victorian Association of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy in Melbourne rounded off her studies and not only gave Anne training and skills for what she didn’t know was ahead but it also enabled her to have a most satisfying professional life as a Clinical Psychoanalytic and Psychoanalytic Psychotherapist until she retired in 2014.

In 2005, the same year Anne’s mother died from dementia, her partner, Edie, for more than 20 years at the time, started showing signs of change. Despite their best efforts, a diagnosis wasn’t made until 2010.

Anne and Edie contacted Dementia Australia and completed a three-day live-in information and support program. This became the catalyst for their first receiving requests to become dementia advocates and public speakers, locally, in Victoria, nationally and internationally.

They made two commitments, which we repeated several times over the years. To fulfil their respective role in their journey with dementia in the best way they could. For Anne as a carer, and for Edie, someone living with dementia. The second was to support fellow travellers.

anne’s most satisfying dementia advocacy has been in Ballarat, through the Bigger Hearts for a Dementia Friendly Ballarat campaign in 2016, Bigger Hearts Dementia Alliance, in 2017, Carer’s Support Group in 2018, Bigger Hearts Dementia Choir in 2019 and Woowookarung Dementia Friendly Forest and Sensory Trail in 2018-2021.

The later project spanned four extremely challenging years for Anne with the progression of Edie’s dementia, Edie’s move to residential care, a major car accident in 2019 involving Anne and their Dementia Assist dog, Melvin, and Edie’s sudden death in June 2020.

The Dementia Trail was officially opened in June 2021 and was Anne’s most passionate and personally satisfying project. It holds what she values most dear – nature, care, creativity, collaboration, community and inclusion. She is proud that people with dementia co-designed the project.

Anne’s commitment to the Dementia Trail over those four years was complete as it was such a positive and nurturing project. Anne found creating the dementia trail life-giving and life-sustaining. She said “It has a ‘beyond’ feel, a spiritual place of welcome and peace.”

Anne believes that life is a journey of discovering that each of us is unique, just as each person living with dementia is unique and that every dementia is different, but so is every disability and ability. Anne’s compass for life was set by the time she left school.

Anne tells us that it just so happened that personal life events drew her to dementia advocacy later in life. She interacts with people living with dementia the same way she does others – by giving good eye contact and treating each person with respect, dignity, warmth and kindness, irrespective of age, ability, gender, race, language, or sexuality. It’s up to you to set your compass based on your values.

Anne says she wasn’t born a leader, she states she is not a natural leader. She never sought notoriety or publicity, but through her life experiences, having a good values-based, quality education and family support, She has learned to live her life from a place of truth, authenticity and care for our earth and all living creatures - except for snails and slugs.

Anne says that being inducted as a Damascus Shining Light, like all recognition she has received, was a huge surprise, but this recognition has deep personal meaning. It’s relevant to her childhood, adolescence and early and later adulthood. Anne took her school experience with her throughout life, and while it’s not always a positive one for some. Anne believes that decisions that we make in life are connected to our belief system, which is based on personal, family, educational and community experiences. Schools can help build confidence and positive values, and they can also destroy them.

Anne has a very personal story that explains a great deal about the positive impact of teachers on her life.

On 14 January 1967, Anne’s eldest brother, Leo was killed in a car accident. Three

Sisters of Mercy came to her home two days later to support their family. Anne had left school

in 1966, after year 11, with no intention of returning. She didn’t have much confidence in herself despite being a good student. It was because of the visiting sister’s persistence that day, insisting that she had the ability to pass Year 12, that changed her mind and she returned to complete her secondary education.

Anne believes that without the support of her teachers, the Sisters of Mercy, their encouragement, their committed teaching and living their values, that she would not be the inspiration we find her to be.

Anne has provided service to the community for many years in myriad ways – locally, in Victoria, nationally and internationally – to increase dementia awareness and understanding of the importance of inclusion and empathy in the community. Anne’s grace, generosity and unrelenting commitment to make a difference in the lives of people impacted by dementia inspire all who meet her’ Maree McCabe, CEO of Dementia Australia said of Anne. In 2021 Anne was Victorian Senior of the Year and in the Queen’s Birthday Honours, she received the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in the General Division for her service to people living with dementia and their supporters.