Research to Drive Knowledge
Dementia is a major challenge for health and aged care in Australia and across the world. We all need to do better in preventing, treating and caring for people with dementia.
Dementia Association of
Western Australia
Specialising in dementia for the Western Australian community from the Great Southern communities of Albany and Esperance, through the golden wheatbelt, the South West, Perth and Peel metropolitan area, Mid West, Gascoyne and Pilbra regions and the stunning Kimberley regions to Wyndam and Kununarra.
Dementia affects memory, thinking, and the ability to perform daily activities. It is a major cause of disability and dependency typically among older people globally. Dementia has physical, psychological, social, and economic impacts, not only for people living with dementia but also for their carers, families, and society at large.
Involving people with lived experience in research leads to higher-quality, more efficient outcomes on what matters most to those living with dementia or caring for someone with dementia.
Over 1.5 million Australians are involved in caring for someone living with dementia
More than 459,000 Australians live with dementia
Almost 30,000 Australians living with younger onset dementia
+244, Australians are diagnosed with dementia every day
Statistics sourced from Dementia Australia and Medical Journal of Australia 2023.
Our Purpose
What does 2024 hold for us?
Driven towards research in care and in keeping with the former National Institute for Dementia Research which closed in 2020, we are developing our own Action Plan that will contribute to enhanced care for all Western Australians living with dementia and who access the NDIS and My Aged Care Programs.
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Key outcomes include:
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identifying better strategies to train health care, aged care and dementia workers who can also work well with people from diverse cultural backgrounds who have dementia;
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increase the happiness of both the staff and clients of organisations and individuals delivering care;
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learning more about how to support the carers and their needs, the health, care, and mental well-being of people with dementia and their families;
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identifying and measuring positive environmental strategies towards the successful independent living of an individual living with dementia.
Music & Dementia
Music has the power to evoke feelings and spark memories in a way no other stimulus can.
Music activates the brain in a unique and powerful way: it stirs emotion, sparks nostalgia and can have a profound impact on the capacity for remembering
Strategies
We approach the topics of dementia research into clinical practice and care with a target focus on environmental strategies and associated inputs. This initiative aims to improve the lives of people living the journey with dementia and their carers by identifying new practices, implementing correct strategies and increasing the quality of care.
We aim to support the implementation of dementia care research across NDIS community and accommodation service providers, residential and aged care facilities and in general practice and in the community.
Partnership Groups
Our Association is strategically partnered with 2Flourish WA who is an NDIS specialist dementia support and care provider to develop and build information, strategies and new techniques that better service and understand dementia in Western Australia.
National Messaging
We seek to promote public health messaging on dementia risk factors and to provide educational opportunities to communities across the state including remote areas of Western Australia.
Collaboration
In 2024 we are busy coordinating and building collaboration frameworks, setting expectations for the organisation in fostering a cohesive research effort with other groups and organisations in Western Australia.
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Raising Awareness
We are aways actively seeking ways to share and promote dementia supports across the state of Western Australia. This means we endeavour to reach every region of the state to actively promote and share information about how to access supports including funding to assist the journey with dementia.
Exploring dementia in other countries
Dementia affects memory, thinking, and the ability to perform daily activities in Australia and in many other countries. It is a major cause of disability and dependency often among older people globally but statistics show younger people are being diagnosed at an increasing rate.
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An estimated 7.5% or 70,800 of the estimated 944,000 people living with dementia in the UK are living with young onset dementia where symptoms occurred under the age of 65..
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