Topic guides: Cultural and linguistic diversity and dementia: Content

Gallery

Dementia Australia resources

Select your language
Our dementia Help Sheets provide advice, common sense approaches and practical strategies on a wide range of subjects. These Help Sheets are available in more than 30 languages

Assisting Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Communities : Webinar
In this video we are joined by Dementia Support Specialist Katharina Feltl and Dementia Australia Counsellor Aline Castro. The video has been developed for people across Australia from culturally diverse backgrounds who may have dementia or are caring for someone living with dementia. It will help to break down some barriers to understanding dementia, seeking support and living better in the community for anyone impacted by dementia.

Books

Intercultural dementia care A guide to raise awareness amongst health and social care workers by Alzheimer Europe
Publication Date: 2020
This resource covers five key areas: ‘About minority ethnic groups and dementia’, ‘Different cultural approaches to dementia care’, ‘Intercultural care and support’, ‘Language and communication’, and ‘Collaboration with families’. The aim of the guide is to help health and social care staff to provide good dementia care to people from a wide range of ethnic groups. The guide includes lots of tips for practice, including examples of the sorts of questions staff could use in order to learn more about a client’s needs and preferences.
Although European-focused, a lot of the content is relevant to care staff working in Australia.
Dementia, Culture and Ethnicity
Publication Date: 2015
This book examines the impact of culture and ethnicity on the experience of dementia and on the provision of support and services, both in general terms and in relation to specific minority ethnic communities. Drawing together evidence-based research and expert practitioners' experiences, this book highlights the ways that dementia care services will need to develop in order to ensure that provision is culturally appropriate for an increasingly diverse older population.
Creating Culturally Appropriate Outside Spaces and Experiences for People with Dementia
Publication Date: 2014
Demonstrating that it is essential to be sensitive to the cultural backgrounds of people with dementia in order to provide truly person-centred care, this book shows that it is possible to create culturally appropriate outdoor spaces and experiences that resonate with people with dementia on a fundamental level and are a source of comfort and wellbeing. Contributors drawn from a variety of backgrounds describe the significance of nature in the lives of people with dementia from diverse cultures, faiths, traditions and geographical locations, providing helpful insights into how access to the natural world may be achieved within different care settings.
Dementia in Australia: 2021 by AIHW
Publication Date: 2021
This online report provides a comprehensive picture of dementia in Australia, including the latest statistics on dementia prevalence, burden of disease, deaths, expenditure, as well as the use of health and aged care services among people with dementia and information on carers of people with dementia. Information about Dementia in priority groups is included.

Family and friends matter (2024)
The Family and friends matter booklet reinforces the importance of family, friendship and social connection for people with dementia and provides strategies and ideas to help an individual engage and maintain their relationship with a family member or friend who has developed dementia.

Video content

Community language videos
Including It's not a disgrace...it's dementia: a short film to raise awareness and dispel myths about dementia within culturally and linguistically diverse communities. The film features carers of people living with dementia giving personal accounts, in their own language, of their experience, along with health professionals who talk about the condition and stress the importance of seeking help early.
Moving pictures: dementia awareness for multicultural communities
To raise awareness of what factors can reduce the risk of developing dementia NARI has co-designed with culturally and linguistically diverse communities nine short animations about dementia prevention based on the most current evidence available. The animations are available in Arabic, Cantonese, Mandarin, Hindi, Tamil, Greek, Vietnamese, Spanish, & Italian.

Webinars

Applying a Diversity Lens to Dementia Care Webinar
Hosted by the Centre for Cultural Diversity in Ageing, this webinar covers some considerations when supporting the needs of culturally diverse consumers living with dementia. It introduces resources for families and professionals which support culturally diverse communities to understand dementia. The webinar is facilitated by Nina Catalano, Dementia Care Navigator CALD, Western Sydney, Dementia Australia and Bianca Brijnath, Divisional Director of Social Gerontology, National Ageing Research Institute (NARI).

Journal articles and resources

Living with dementia: Exploring the intersections of culture, race, and dementia, stigma (2024)
Research documents the presence of stigma and discrimination as key components in the lived experience of dementia. However, to date, there is limited understanding regarding how social location, particularly as it relates to culture and race, may shape this experience of stigma and discrimination. In this qualitative exploratory study, personal interviews were held with ten Chinese Canadians living with dementia focused on better understanding how culture, race, and dementia stigma influence their experiences.
Wong KLY, Johnson G, O’Connor D. Living with dementia: Exploring the intersections of culture, race, and dementia, stigma. Dementia. 2024;23(6):1001-1020. doi:10.1177/14713012241249796
Culturally Adapting Evidence on Dementia Prevention for Ethnically Diverse Communities: Lessons Learnt from co-design (2022)
Cultural adaptation involves consideration of the mode of delivery, imagery and tone of the resource being developed; ensuring cultural adequacy; anticipating the need of the end-users; and managing linguistic challenges associated with working across multiple languages.
Learnings from this co-design process offer valuable insights for researchers and program developers who work with ethnic minority groups.
Bianca Brijnath, Carolina Navarro Medel, Josefine Antoniades & Andrew S. Gilbert (2022) Culturally Adapting Evidence on Dementia Prevention for Ethnically Diverse Communities: Lessons Learnt from co-design, Clinical Gerontologist, DOI: 10.1080/07317115.2022.2101968
Beyond crisis: Enacted sense-making among ethnic minority carers of people with dementia in Australia (2021)
The ‘family crisis’ narrative is frequently used in dementia studies to explain ethnic minority families’ pathways to health and aged care and why there is delayed dementia diagnoses in ethnic minority communities. Such narratives may obscure the family carers’ agency in negotiating services and managing personal, social and structural burdens in the lead up to diagnosis. To illuminate agency, this article describes ethnic minority families’ pathways to a dementia diagnosis using the concept of sense-making. Three case studies were drawn from 56 video interviews with family carers of older adults with dementia from Chinese, Arab and Indian backgrounds.
Brijnath B, Gilbert AS, Kent M, et al. Beyond crisis: Enacted sense-making among ethnic minority carers of people with dementia in Australia. Dementia. 2021;20(6):1910-1924. doi:10.1177/1471301220975641
Including ethnic and cultural diversity in dementia research (2019)
Evidence-based practice and policy must be based on the best available evidence, which should be representative of the population. However, the current body of dementia research does not reflect the ethnic and cultural diversity of the Australian population. Hence, people from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds may receive inequitable dementia care as there is less evidence to help optimise clinical and service decisions.
Low, L. F., Barcenilla-Wong, A. L., & Brijnath, B. (2019). Including ethnic and cultural diversity in dementia research. The Medical journal of Australia, 211(8), 345–346.e1.
Communication cards / Centre for Cultural Diversity in Ageing
Flash cards depicting key items and activities. Available in 61 languages
The Communication Cards depict a wide range of daily activities and situations and can be used to prompt discussion, assist with directions, clarify a client’s needs, etc.
The Communication Cards cover themes such as:
Food / Drink / Meals
Personal Care
Feelings / Pain
Religion / Spirituality
Sleep
Mobility Aids
Medical / Health Specialists
TV / Recreation

Websites

Partners in Culturally Appropriate Care (PICAC)
PICAC supports aged care service providers to deliver care that meets the needs of culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) people. You can access their workshops, training, information sessions, fact sheets and guides.
Moving pictures - Dementia information for multicultural communities
Genie: online resources to support CALD family carers of people living with dementia (NARI)
The Global dEmeNtIa rEsources (GENIE) project is developing an online repository of national and international evidence-based dementia resources to support Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) family carers of people living with dementia.
10 questions to ask about your cultural needs in residential aged care
10 Questions to ask website.

Assessment tools

Rowland Universal Dementia Assessment Scale (RUDAS)
The Rowland Universal Dementia Assessment Scale (RUDAS) is a short cognitive screening instrument designed to minimise the effects of cultural learning and language diversity on the assessment of baseline cognitive performance.