Resources

This background paper was developed by the Sustainable Health Review secretariat and focused on the need to reduce the costs of acute healthcare by strengthening sub-acute services for older Australians.

This article discusses the history and evolution of reablement programs in Australia.

This 2019 professional development article from the Australian Journal of General Practice (AJGP) discusses reablement, restorative care and rehabilitation providing a function-focused approach to address the needs of older people with functional decline.

General practitioners have a key role in providing quality primary care in terms of the identification, assessment, provision of information, referral and ongoing management. This article published in Australian Family Physician discusses the role of the GP in the diagnosis and management of people with dementia.

This article published by NPS MedicineWise provides information about depression in dementia, including the clinical picture, assessment, management, and referral.

An article in MedicineToday about identifying patients nearing the end of life and providing quality care.

This online publication from the Queensland Brain Institute provides information about dementia including why we need to talk about dementia, what dementia is, signs and symptoms, normal ageing or dementia, stages of dementia and more.

This article from InPsych provides information about psychological assessment of dementia, includes information about types of dementia, course and stages of dementia, differential diagnosis, dementia screening instruments, and roles for psychologists.

Guidelines which emphasise timely diagnosis; living well with dementia and delaying functional decline; managing symptoms through training staff in how to provide person-centred care and using non-pharmacological approaches in the first instance; and training and supporting families and carers to provide care.

Psychological illness is very common among people with dementia, and markedly more common than among older people without dementia. This article from InPsych provides information about the role a psychologist can play when working with people living with dementia.