Australian services for people with dementia are fragmented, challenging to navigate and hard to access
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) pandemic has led to reflections around reforming Australia’s health care system.1 In view of future reforms, this article is intended to provoke policy and clinical discussion regarding what an effective, efficient model of service delivery meeting the needs of people with dementia and their families may look like. The opinion presented here belongs to the members of the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) National Institute for Dementia Research Special Interest Group in Rehabilitation and Dementia.
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The members of the National Health and Medical Research Council National Institute for Dementia Research Special Interest Group in Rehabilitation and Dementia:
Lee‐Fay Low1
Kate Laver2
Katherine Lawler3
Kate Swaffer4,5
Alex Bahar‐Fuchs6
Sally Bennett7
Annaliese Blair8
Jason Burton9
Michele Callisaya10,11
Monica Cations2
Claire MC O'Connor12,13
Meredith Gresham14
Gill Lewin15
Petrea Messent16
Christopher J Poulos12,13
Jacqueline Wesson1,17
Theresa L Scott7
Glenn Rees18
1 University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW
2 Flinders University, Adelaide, SA
3 Wicking Dementia Research and Education Centre, University of Tasmania, Hobart, TAS
4 Dementia Alliance International, Ankeny, IA, United States of America
5 University of South Australia, Adelaide, SA
6 University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC
7 University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD
8 Southern NSW Local Health District, Queanbeyan, NSW
9 Alzheimer’s Western Australia, Perth, WA
10 Menzies Institute for Medical Research, Hobart, TAS
11 Monash University, Melbourne, VIC
12 Centre for Positive Ageing, HammondCare, Sydney, NSW
13 UNSW Sydney, Sydney, NSW
14 Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, NSW
15 Curtin University, Perth, WA
16 Dementia Australia, Canberra, ACT
17 Montefiore, Sydney, NSW
18 Alzheimer’s Disease International, London, United Kingdom
lee-fay.low@sydney.edu.au
Lee‐Fay Low is funded by a National Health and Medical Research Council Boosting Dementia Research Leadership Development Fellowship.
No relevant disclosures.