Dementia and medicines: Empowering you to understand your options
Alzheimer's Australia and NPS MedicineWise have joined forces, today launching a campaign to educate and empower people living with a diagnosis of dementia and those involved in their care.
People with dementia have told us they need more information on medicines and treatment options. This is a priority area for the more than 353,800 people living with dementia, the additional 146,200 who are expected to be diagnosed in less than 5 years and the 1.2 million who are involved in the care of a person with dementia.
We hope that the attached resources will help people with dementia and their carers make informed decisions resulting in improvements in their quality of life and appropriate dementia care.
I encourage you to assist us with the dissemination and promotion of these materials via your newsletters, website, media release and social media.
We have developed a range of materials focusing on supporting people and their carers to make decisions about appropriate treatment (including medicines) with input from their health care providers.
The campaign also encourages people living with dementia and their families to start a conversation about their wishes and how to communicate these decisions about future treatment to the people involved in their care.
This is particularly important, as we know that for some people, the progression of dementia can cause changes in people's behaviour. As the symptoms of dementia progress, communication can becoming increasingly difficult, leading to dissatisfaction and in some cases distress.
These resources will help educate people about their rights when it comes to different treatment options now and in the future.
Key elements of the new campaign include:
- A downloadable, printable information booklet containing information to empower people with a diagnosis of dementia and the people and health professionals involved in their care. The booklet covers issues around consent, appropriate use of medicines, and non-medicine therapies including psychosocial approaches to expressions of distress
- Downloadable, printable fact sheets on strategies to address distress, other conditions that commonly occur alongside dementia, and tips for good medicine management
- Consumer stories told via video and sharable on social media
- Health professional communication
To read more information and to download the new resources, go to www.nps.org.au/dementia