Living with Dementia

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Resources and tools for people living with or caring for someone with dementia.

Airport User Guide

This guide aims to help make air travel as simple and enjoyable as possible - from planning and getting to the airport, through to the departure gate and returning safely home again. It is designed specifically for people living with dementia and their travel companions.

Online Dementia Risk Assessment (hosted by ANU)

The term ‘dementia’ describes a syndrome of more than 100 different diseases affecting the brain. The most common cause (approximately 50–70%) of dementia is Alzheimer's disease. This resources is for anyone who wants to assess their risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease.

A Guide for Family Carers

A Guide for Family Carers is a ‘travel size’ adapted summary of the original DBMAS Behaviour Management Guide to Good Practice. This Guide is for family carers supporting a person with dementia. It includes practical information about how to deal with behaviours and psychological symptoms associated with dementia (BPSD)*

Preparing for a Natural Disaster

Everyone in Australia should prepare for natural disasters. If you are a carer of someone with dementia, you need to think carefully about how best to help them and protect both of you from harm. The Carer Ready Guide can help you think about these issues. You should read the Carer Ready Guide when completing your Red Cross RediPlan.

Environmental Assessment Tool (EAT)

Is your environment dementia friendly? The Environmental Audit Tool helps you assess the quality of residential care environments for people with dementia. It is useful for researchers and professionals.

Environmental Design Kit

This kit is for residential and healthcare managers, planners, architects and designers - to help them create dementia-friendly environments that promote independence and reduce anxiety in people with dementia while assisting carers to do their job.

Focus on the Person Tool for Home Carers

This tool is designed to help you record information about the person you care for that can be quickly and easily provided to the hospital staff to assist them to provide personalised care. It is designed for family and home carers of a person with dementia.

Healthy Ageing Evidence Briefs: Get Moving

This resource is an evidence summary about the health benefits of physical activity for older people and it is designed for older people. The brief contains practical tips on beneficial activity levels, how to say motivated, and key information sources.

Dementia Risk Reduction Guide for GPs

This guide provides information for GPs about modifiable risk and protective factors for dementia. Each section explains the evidence for the association of that factor with dementia risk and provides a practical guide to the resources available to GPs to assist them to work with their patients to address factors of concern. Where possible, hyperlinks […]

LGBTI Fact Sheets

There is a need for greater, targeted support for LGBTI people with dementia from all care contexts, requiring service providers to be better informed in the additional considerations relevant to the management of BPSD in this group.

Looking After Yourself While Looking After Someone With Dementia

As a carer it is important to look after yourself. If you’re not well it is difficult for you to look after someone else. This guide has information about the meaning of wellness and many handy strategies to help you improve your wellness and increase your resilience.

Dementia and Driving – A Decision Aid

The Driving and Dementia Decision Aid Booklet (DDDA) - Australian Version is a booklet which is part of a set of educational resources on dementia and driving and including a video. The booklet also comes in large print format, with versions for Australia and New Zealand.

Dementia-Friendly Home App

The Dementia-Friendly Home app helps carers adapt or design a home for a person living with dementia. Carers are placed in a virtual home that they can explore at their own pace, learning how to make it more suitable for people with dementia.

Residential Respite Care Transitions for Families & Carers

While residential respite care has been identified as an essential support for carers of people with dementia, there has been carer reluctance to use such services. Reported factors include perceptions that the respite experience will be detrimental to the health and behavioural stability of the person with dementia, and that carers experience feelings of increased anxiety and guilt when care is relinquished.

Getting the most out of Respite Care

If you care for somebody with dementia, you need to remember to look after yourself. Sometimes this means taking a break, by getting help from respite services. Getting the most out of respite care has been designed to help you decide if and when you should use these services.

Safe sitting and posture

Seating matters! Good seating and postural care can make an enormous difference to someone who is frail or has trouble moving about independently.

Sexuality And People In Aged Care Facilities: A Guide For Partners And Families

This guide has been written for partners and families to help you understand more about sexuality, what it means and how and why it might still be important for people with dementia.

Transition to Residential Care

The transition to permanent residential care can be the most difficult time in your carer journey. Watch this 6 minute video to hear real advice from carers about how they dealt with both the practical and emotional aspects of transitioning from home-based to permanent residential care.

“Understanding Dementia” MOOC

A MOOC is a Massive Open Online Course. The "Understanding Dementia" MOOC has been developed by Wicking Dementia Research and Education Centre at the University of Tasmania. It is a 9 week online course that builds upon the latest in international research on dementia.

Healthy Ageing Evidence Briefs: Vascular Risk Factors

This evidence brief identifies some vascular risk factors that have been linked to cognitive health, such as hypertension, obesity, diabetes and smoking. This resource is for the wider community.

Your Brain Matters

Your Brain Matters is a program that guides you on how to look after your brain health. It is based on scientific evidence that a number of health and lifestyle factors are associated with brain function and the risk of developing dementia.

Care4Dementia App (currently unavailable)

This App was developed to provide information and support for carers in their role of caring for persons with behavioural changes that can occur in dementia. Information on what these behaviours look like, why they might be happening and what you can do to help is included for those most commonly reported by carers. Understanding why behavioural changes are occurring can help to manage the behaviour.