Activities and engagement

• Activities for people with dementia by Dementia Australia

  Content about planning and providing appropriate activities for people with dementia. Enjoyment doesn’t require memory. Each day there are many things that provide us with purpose and pleasure. For a person with dementia, the need for a good quality of life is not diminished. Abilities can vary greatly depending on a person’s age or their stage of dementia, but keeping involved and active is extremely important.

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  Creativity and dementia: webinar

  In this webinar, Associate Professor Helen English discusses the benefits of creative engagement. Helen is joined by Maurie Voisey-Barlin, a Creative Engagement Specialist in music and improvisation, and Margaret Rolla, Creative Ageing Specialist and director of Artintuit, who will talk about how they use creativity as a tool to connect and engage.

• I believe in the magic of it : Creative arts engagement, wellbeing and dementia by Dementia Australia

  Publication Date: 2023

  This discussion paper explores how engaging people living with dementia in the creative arts can improve their wellbeing. Exploring the psychosocial approaches to support the wellbeing of people living with dementia. Including creative arts, community-based creativity, culture and country, music and dance, reminiscence and storytelling.

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  Family and Friends Matter: How to stay connected with a person living with dementia by Dementia Australia

  Publication Date: 2025
  Family and friends matter. They help us navigate life’s ups and downs. They accept us as we are. If your family member or friend has been diagnosed with dementia, it’s natural to feel unsure about what this means for the future. Here you’ll find answers to questions like: How will dementia impact our relationship? What can we do to keep a special bond? How can we stay connected in meaningful ways? What interests can we continue to enjoy together?

• "I Want to Do Something" - Exploring What Makes Activities Meaningful for Community-Dwelling People Living With Dementia: A Focused Ethnographic Study (2024)

  Supporting ageing in place, quality of life, and activity engagement are public health priorities for people with dementia. The importance of maintaining opportunities for meaningful activities has been widely acknowledged for those with dementia in long-term care, but little is known about what makes activities meaningful for, and how they are experienced by, people with different types of dementia in their own homes.
  Harding, E., Sullivan, M. P., Camic, P. M., Yong, K. X. X., Stott, J., & Crutch, S. J. (2024). "I Want to Do Something" - Exploring What Makes Activities Meaningful for Community-Dwelling People Living With Dementia: A Focused Ethnographic Study. Qualitative health research, 34(13), 1286–1302. https://doi.org/10.1177/10497323241239487
• Being Present and Meaningful Engagement for Aged Care Residents Living With Dementia: A Mixed-Methods Evaluation of Australian Care Worker’s Experiences (2023)

  Swinton, J., Vilapakkam Nagarajan, S., Atee, M., Morris, T., & Poulos, C. J. (2023). Being present and meaningful engagement for aged care residents living with dementia: A mixed-methods evaluation of Australian care worker's experiences. The Gerontologist, gnad131. https://doi.org/10.1093/geront/gnad131

• Connecting people, connecting support

  Helping people living with mild cognitive impairment and dementia to embed health-promoting activities into their daily routine. Created by occupational therapists and design researchers who are passionate about the role of occupation and meaningful activity in enabling individuals to live well and continue to do the things that are important to them.
• The activities handbook / Alzheimer's Society (UK)

  Taking part in activities, including everyday tasks, can have powerful benefits for the physical and mental wellbeing of a person with dementia. This handbook is for anyone who’s caring for a person with dementia. It will help you suggest activities that the person you’re caring for may enjoy. It may also help people with dementia who are looking for activities they can try. Chapters cover social, physical and outdoor activities, activities at home and online activities.
• Meaningful activities for a person with dementia / Dementia UK

  Meaningful activities can include a range of things from the usual tasks of daily life, such as, cooking, cleaning, gardening, self-care, through to activities which engage like a call or a zoom session with a relative or friends.

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  Montessori approach to activities
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  Music and dementia
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  Reminiscence and life story work