Thursday, September 19, 2024

1:15 PM - 2:45 PM

Goldworthy

---

Details

During National Dementia Action Week, Dementia Australia explores the importance of public health in dementia. Surveys conducted during the past decade show that: • Australians find people living with dementia frightening • 61% of people would rather not think about dementia • The belief that dementia is a normal part of ageing has increased over the last decade. Dementia is not a normal part of ageing • 83% of people agreed that they would like to know how to reduce their risk of developing dementia. The AIHW estimates that around 40% of the burden of disease could be avoided by addressing modifiable risk factors for this chronic degenerative neurological condition. This is about the same avoidable burden as cancer. The number of people living with dementia is predicted to double in the next 30 years. Yet dementia is largely missing in our public health discussions. Current approaches to dementia risk reduction are predominately focused on individual (or personalised) strategies which are often difficult to execute, costly to implement and overall have shown minimal effects. Therefore, new population-level strategies, targeting whole communities, are urgently needed. This workshop explores what acting now for to secure improved outcomes for dementia in the future would look like from a public health perspective and encourages us to think about dementia beyond an aged care issue.