Dementia Action Week 2019 runs between September 16 and 22, with a theme of Dementia doesn’t discriminate. Do you?
Dementia Australia is calling on all Australians to change how they respond and behave around people living with dementia.
The theme aims to start a conversation with all Australians to consider how discrimination impacts people living with dementia, their families and carers.
Dementia Australia CEO Maree McCabe said dementia doesn’t discriminate in terms of who is impacted, but people can choose not to be discriminatory in the way they interact with individuals who are living with this chronic condition.
“A person living with dementia might be ignored or dismissed in conversations,” Ms McCabe said.
“Sometimes people without realising will talk directly to the carer as if the person living with dementia is not even there.
“Assumptions might be made about a person’s capacity to contribute to conversations, decision-making, whether they can still drive, cook or even continue to work. Friends and family might stop calling or inviting a person living with dementia to social occasions – not out of deliberate neglect but possibly out of not knowing how to include them.
“Our focus during Dementia Action Week will deepen the enquiry into discrimination and dementia.”
The national body is calling on the community to complete a short survey to help to create an informed, national picture to better understand how discrimination for people living with dementia occurs, within what contexts, and what it would take to shift that behaviour.
The survey can be found at: https://reflectionsresearch.au1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_aavTLlmC
