Sons and Daughters

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  Support for families and carers

  Family members and friends often find themselves in the role of a carer when a loved one is living with dementia. While caring for your loved one can be rewarding, it can also have its tougher days. As you care for someone with dementia, you may not be taking as much care of your own emotional, mental or physical wellbeing. Whether you’re the husband, wife, partner, daughter, son, brother, sister or friend of the person, your relationship will change. Dementia Australia offers support for families and carers so you don’t feel alone.

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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?

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  Hold the Moment Podcast by Dementia Australia

  Hold the Moment is a podcast by people living with dementia. Season 1 Episode 7 focuses on families with reflections on the impact of a loved one’s dementia diagnosis and Season 2 Episode 1: The juggling act focuses on one woman's personal story of caring for her parents with dementia.

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  Discovering Dementia Podcast by Penny Bell

  Penny Bell’s podcast provides a relatable and educational source of information about dementia. Following Penny's mother's diagnosis of mixed dementia this is a story of how one person's dementia story led to a journey of discovery.

• A mixed method study exploring gender differences in dementia caregiving (2023)

  Poisson, V.O., Poulos, R.G., Withall, A.L., Reilly, A., Emerson, L., & O’Connor, C.M.C. (2023), A mixed method study exploring gender differences in dementia caregiving. Dementia, 22(8):1862-1885.
• 3 Ways Dementia Impacts the Parent–Child Relationship (2023)

  A web article from Psychology Today examines three ways that dementia impacts the parent-child relationship.
• Brothers and sisters sharing in the care of a parent with dementia (2022)

  Brothers’ and sisters’ experiences providing care to a parent with dementia differ, but little is known about how mixed-gender siblings share their caregiving responsibilities or how sharing affects their relationship.
  Kokorelias, K. M., Rittenberg, N., Law, A., Wan, N. T. C., Machon, J., Arfeen, Y., & Cameron, J. I. (2022). Brothers and sisters sharing in the care of a parent with dementia. Dementia (London, England), 21(3), 765–780. https://doi.org/10.1177/14713012211053970
• Supporting and sustaining care at home: Experiences of adult daughters who support a parent with dementia to remain in their own home (2021)

  Supporting a parent with dementia living in their own home is a challenging care issue which has potential for negative physical, emotional and psychosocial impacts. This research explores the experiences of adult daughters who sustain this arrangement as well as managing the competing demands of their lives.
  Smith, G., & Rodham, K. (2021). Supporting and sustaining care at home: Experiences of adult daughters who support a parent with dementia to remain in their own home. Health & Social Care in the Community, 29(1), 37–47. https://doi.org/10.1111/hsc.13373
• Driving and Patients With Dementia (2018)

  Driving is a symbol of autonomy and independence. It is nevertheless an individual’s privilege, not right, especially as driving may affect other drivers and pedestrians on the road. In this case scenario, we describe the situation that arose when a patient with multi-infarct dementia wanted to go for a drive and his son and grandson tried to convince him that he could no longer drive. What went wrong in the caregivers/patient interaction is presented. The futility of arguing with patients who have dementia is highlighted as well as the suspiciousness it may generate. Alternate actions that can be useful to avoid/avert the situation from escalating and having a catastrophic ending are discussed. Testing/evaluating patients with dementia for fitness to drive is also reviewed and a list of select resources is included.
  Hamdy RC, Kinser A, Kendall-Wilson T, Depelteau A, Whalen K, Culp J. Driving and Patients With Dementia. Gerontol Geriatr Med. 2018 May 31;4:2333721418777085
• Repetitive Questioning II (2018)

  Repetitive questioning is a major problem for caregivers, particularly taxing if they are unable to recognize and understand the reasons why their loved one keeps asking the same question over and over again. Caregivers may be tempted to believe that the patient does not even try to remember the answer given or is just getting obnoxious. This is incorrect. Repetitive questioning is due to the underlying disease: The patient’s short term memory is impaired and he is unable to register, encode, retain and retrieve the answer.
  Hamdy, R. C., Kinser, A., Depelteau, A., Lewis, J. V., Copeland, R., Kendall-Wilson, T., & Whalen, K. (2018). Repetitive Questioning II. Gerontology & geriatric medicine, 4, 2333721417740190.