practical living
Caring for the carers
A new long-term study is
looking to improve support
for dementia carers.
Irene Blackberry interviewed
by Conor Burke
R
ural dementia carers find support
difficult to come by, phone
numbers hard to find, and local
clinicians often unhelpful.
Professor Irene Blackberry, head of the
John Richards Centre for Rural Ageing
Research at La Trobe University, says
that “often the processes are confusing,
and services are insufficiently linked up,
making it a challenging experience for
some carers”.
22 agedcareinsite.com.au
It is because of this that Blackberry and
La Trobe have launched a three-year study
in Bendigo, Victoria, looking to improve
access to local support.
“This study aims to come up with
innovative solutions to ensure dementia
carers feel supported and in control while
they navigate life after the diagnosis of a
loved one,” Blackberry said.
Aged Care Insite spoke with her to find
out more about this research.
ACI: This study is run through the
Webster Rural and Regional Dementia
Care Project. What does it entail?
IB: What we want to do is try to help the
family members, the carers of people living
with dementia in Bendigo. We want to find
innovative solutions to help people feel
supported in their journey, and to support
their loved ones living with dementia.
We are aware that when people receive
a dementia diagnosis, everyone feels
distressed. This is when people need the
support to care for their loved one.
And we know there are many good
support services available, but often
people – as well as service providers
– are not aware of what services are
available locally. This is where we try to
make a difference, by trying to connect
services to services, and people to
services as well.
Take us through the specifics on how
you’ll look for these solutions.
What we try to do is speak to people. We’ll
have some online surveys, and we’ll also
conduct the one-on-one interviews. We
want to hear from people who’ve accessed
services before, about their experience in
accessing these services.
We also want to hear from the service
providers as well about the type of services
they offer in the community.
We’re trying to better understand and
get the whole picture of what gaps are in
the dementia care pathways.
At the moment, there are a lot of
services available, and you can find
them, for example, on the My Aged Care
website. However, for people living in
rural and regional areas, some of the
services are not accessible in their local