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$1.27 million boost for aged care

29 April 2009

Sam Davis
Dr Sam Davis

A consortium, led by Dr Sam Davis of Monash University's School of Rural Health at Bendigo, has secured $1.27 million to improve the care of people with dementia in residential aged care.

Participating rural residential aged care facilities will work with Monash, the Loddon-Mallee Primary Care Partnership and McCarthy Psychology Services to create environments that support people with dementia to remain engaged in everyday life.

One in 600 Victorians under the age of 65 has dementia. For those aged 70 and above, the likelihood increases to one in 30 people, while one in eight people aged over 80 and one in three people aged 90 or more have a form of dementia.

Dementia describes the symptoms of a large group of illnesses that cause a progressive decline in a person's functioning including a loss of memory, intellect, rationality, and social skills.

"There is evidence to show that appropriate physical environments and the way care is provided in those environments can address behaviours that causes stress, risk of or actual harm to the person with dementia, care staff, family members or those around them," Dr Davis said.

"Working together, researchers, trainers and aged care providers in the consortium will put this existing information into practice to improve the quality of life for people with dementia.

"The lessons learned in participating Victorian rural aged care facilities will become a blueprint for how to create dementia-friendly environments in aged care facilities around Australia."

The project is funded by the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing.

The consortium includes Loddon-Mallee Primary Care Partnership, McCarthy Psychology Services, Mallee Track Health and Community Service, Cohuna District Hospital, Echuca Regional Health, Inglewood and Districts Health Service, Tongala and District Memorial Aged Care Service Inc, Boort District Hospital, and Rochester and Elmore District Health Service.