Emma McBride (Dobell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

One in 10 Australians aged over 65 is living with dementia. For Australians over 85, that number climbs to three in ten. That means that more than 425,000 Australians are living with dementia. Every day, 250 more people in Australia learn they have dementia. It is an issue of national and global concern. There is no cure. But as my mum says, for people living with dementia, you learn that they are more than memories, and mum knows. She lost her mum, my grandma, Mollie, and my dad, Grant, to dementia earlier this year. Her favourite saying is: 'There's still a lot of living with dementia.'

Today, with my mum here—and my aunt and uncle, Trish and Ray—I want to share an initiative started on the Central Coast of New South Wales of which I am proud to be patron. The newly formed Central Coast Dementia Alliance is working to make the Central Coast a dementia-friendly community. They are health workers, service providers, business and community leaders working together to improve the health and wellbeing of people living with dementia, and of their carers and families. The coast is a great place to live and a great place to retire. One in five of us is aged over 65. That makes dementia an issue of concern in our community. Currently, nearly 6,000 people on the coast are living with dementia. I want to make their experience better than my grandma's and better than my dad's. That's the mission of our alliance: to make enjoying life easier. We have many good support services, but they can be tough to find.

One of the first tasks of our alliance will be to map existing services and identify gaps. An equally important task will be raising awareness and providing education. Starting next month, the alliance, supported by Dementia Australia, will hold workshops to help people understand dementia and memory loss. We'll be working with businesses to make our shopping spaces safer and more welcoming. I'm delighted that Westfield Tuggerah has joined the alliance. I'm hoping businesses within the centre and other centres will join too. We hope this will improve understanding and help reduce the stigma felt by people living with dementia. It's important to note that a dementia-friendly community is not just good for people who are living with dementia, and for their carers and families; it's good for everyone. Some of this requires planning, big projects, lots of funding, but there are smaller projects too that we can start right now. That's what the dementia alliance is focused on doing in our community: small, practical, local projects that can make a difference in our community straightaway.

People living with dementia can live well. People living with dementia deserve to live better. We can raise awareness, we can boost understanding, and we will reduce stigma and make enjoying life easier for people with dementia. I sincerely hope the work beginning on the coast will inspire other communities. I commend the members of the Central Coast Dementia Alliance for their excellent initiative.