Quality dementia care equals quality care for all: opinion

A new action plan aims to build the capacity and capability of the aged care sector to improve care for people living with dementia, their families and carers, writes Dr Kaele Stokes.

We know from our work and broad consultation with people living with dementia, their families and carers, that if we get quality care right for people living with dementia then there will be quality care for all.

Dementia Australia has been collaborating with people living with dementia, their families and carers – together with the most significant influencers of quality care – to develop an integrated plan of action.

The Quality Dementia Care: Action Plan intends to build the capacity and capability of the aged care sector to embed and improve quality care for people living with dementia, their families and carers in Australia.

Dementia Australia is leading the plan in partnership with the Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care, Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission, Aged Care Workforce Industry Council, Dementia Support Australia and Dementia Training Australia.

Our extensive work and consultation with people living with dementia, their families and carers underpins the Quality Dementia Care Action Plan and has been ongoing since 2018. The areas identified have been validated by the findings of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety and by the wide range of reforms in the aged care sector.

The plan is intended to sit alongside the ongoing aged care reform process and current development of the National Dementia Action Plan. It focuses very deliberately on those initiatives – or groups of initiatives – that collectively will improve quality care for people living with dementia. These include: 

• dementia support pathways – people living with dementia, their families and carers have optimal access to the integrated services and supports they need to live the life they choose 
• building workforce capability – the workforce, leadership and culture understands and supports dementia and has the skills and knowledge to sustainably embed quality dementia care 
• dementia-friendly design – physical environments support people living with dementia to be as independent as possible 

All of which are underpinned by people living with dementia placed firmly at the centre. 

These key focus areas have been informed by consumers, as articulated in Our Solution: Quality care for people living with dementia and refined further in our Roadmap for quality dementia care. 

Building on our roadmap, this Quality Dementia Care Action Plan addresses the systemic issues in an aged care system in which dementia has not been core business.

Dementia prevalence in the community and residential aged care is significant. In 2022, there are up to 487,500 Australians living with dementia and more than two-thirds of aged care residents have moderate to severe cognitive impairment.

With this high prevalence, quality dementia care must be top of the agenda for every plan, framework, strategy and review of the aged care system reform process, including residential and home and community care.

People living with dementia, their families and carers have told us what they need, and we are committed to seeing through a transformation that improves the quality of care and support for people impacted by dementia. 

We are in the process of developing an annual report card, which will measure progress against the individual initiatives by each key partner, and also the impact of collective transformational change in the aged care sector.

Change takes time and we expect that activity may not immediately translate into impact. We do know that if we consistently and collectively strive toward the key focus areas as articulated by consumers, experiences of quality care will be improved over time.

In the words of a person living with dementia: “If we can get it right for people living with dementia, we can get it right for everyone”.  

Dr Kaele Stokes is executive director of advocacy and research at Dementia Australia

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