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New Partnership to Help Increase Understanding of Dementia in Aboriginal Communities

Announcement of program originally published in the Circular Head Chronicle on May 6th, 2018. Click Here to read the article.

The University of Tasmania’s Wicking Dementia Research and Education Centre in conjunction with the Circular Head Aboriginal Corporation (CHAC) and the University’s Centre for Rural Health are taking steps forward to help increase the understanding of dementia in remote Aboriginal communities.

Funding from the federal government’s Department of Health/Dementia and Aged Care Services will allow 10 members of the local community to engage in the Wicking Centre’s Dementia Care Degree Program and complete a TAFE Certificate III in Individual Support (Ageing, Home, and Community) through an $835,000 grant.

The project follows on from a recent study conducted by doctors Lyn Goldberg, Terry Cox and Ha Hoang alongside the local organization that looked at the level of dementia understanding in the Circular Head Aboriginal community.

By engaging in the Dementia Care Degree Program, the students will gain knowledge needed to provide dementia care, support and education in this remote community.

CHAC chief executive officer Di Baldock said the partnership would give the community a basis for future care programs to be developed.

“We see this project as an important step in developing an Aboriginal community health worker program in Circular Head, that hopefully will be available statewide as Aboriginal people in Tasmania don’t currently have access to such a program,” she said.

“In the past, Aboriginal people wanting to train up as Aboriginal health workers have had to travel to Victoria to access the training, which then becomes a burden financially . . . We hope the project will also provide a model for collaborative work with other Australian Aboriginal communities.”

The participants are now in full-time study mode having begun the course at the beginning of Semester One. They are completing the units online with access to a face-to-face TAFE instructor  on a weekly basis. A full-time Project Officer, Jodi Jones, is based in Smithton and provides daily support and assistance.

Dr Goldberg, senior lecturer at the Wicking Centre, said she understands the various pressures that come along with studying in a remote area and the isolation felt by those that study online but underlined the need for the project to occur in the community.

“This is unique in the sense that students are undertaking vocational studies as well as a university bachelor,” she said.

“There is a need to understand dementia in-depth and be able to provide qualified and effective care within the community.”


Dr Lyn Goldberg is a Senior Lecturer at the Wicking Dementia Research and Education Centre.

Published on: 24 May 2018 1:32pm