The Morrison Government will provide a further $40 million in grants to better support people living with dementia.
Applications are now open under the National Dementia Support Program for funding from 2019-20 to 2021-22.
Funding of $36 million will support education programs, services and resources to improve interactions between people living with dementia and those around them.
This could include projects to raise awareness and understanding about dementia, and increase the skills and confidence of people living with dementia, their carers, families, health professionals, volunteers, and contacts within their communities.
Grants may also be used to:
- support primary health care practitioners, including GPs, to improve early diagnosis of dementia;
- reduce stigma about dementia which can exist in the community;
- support people and families at or after the diagnosis of dementia;
- provide culturally appropriate education and information on dementia and support services for people, families and carers from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.
This funding includes $5 million to Dementia Australia to enable the organisation to continue to provide its services for five months to 30 November 2019 while the grant process is undertaken.
This investment will ensure people living with dementia, their families and carers are continually provided the support they need during this process.
The remaining $4 million focuses on the use of innovative technology for people living with dementia.
These grants will aim to:
- assist people living with dementia to sustain their independence and remain in their own homes for longer;
- improve the quality of life of people living with dementia in both home and residential aged care; and
- support families and carers to develop skills and strategies for caring.
Dementia is one of the biggest health and social challenges facing our nation, and other developed countries around the world.
The number of Australians living with dementia will increase rapidly over the next 30 years because we are living longer and the population is ageing.
Earlier this month, the Morrison Government announced funding for a world-first national network of specialist care units for patients with severe dementia. At full roll out, funding of $70 million a year will support more than 30 specialist care units to provide best practice person-centred care for these vulnerable people.
The Morrison Government also provides $50 million each year for a number of dementia specific programs to support quality of life and care for people living with dementia.
It's also on top of the $200 million over five years for the Boosting Dementia Research Initiative, of which $15 million is earmarked for Implementing Dementia Risk Reduction and Prevention Research Priority projects.
Applications for the National Dementia Support Program can be
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