About one million people worldwide will learn about understanding and preventing dementia, thanks to a $3.7 million boost in funding to a Tasmanian-based research and education centre.
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The third stage of funding to the Wicking Dementia Research and Education Centre, from the JO and JR Wicking Trust, will be used to maximise the reach of the centre’s Massive Open Online Courses, aimed at improving dementia literacy around the world.
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The funding will be announced in Hobart on Tuesday afternoon.
Centre director Professor James Vickers said the courses were “imperative” to helping people around the world be better equipped to serve the needs of people living with dementia.
“With about 46.8 million people with dementia globally and a rapidly ageing world population, dementia is set to escalate in prevalence, becoming a leading cause of death through this century and a major focus of health and social care,” he said.
“Education will be crucial in caring for people with dementia so the Wicking Centre is taking on the challenge of reaching 400,000 Australians and a further one million people through its online education over the next five years.”
Professor Vickers said the centre had shown that the standard of care in homes, hospitals and residential facilities increased if health professionals and family members were more knowledgeable about dementia.
The Wicking Centre was established in 2008 through joint funding from the Trust and the University of Tasmania, aimed at improving quality of life for people with dementia and their carers.
An Understanding Dementia course was introduced in 2013, followed by a Preventing Dementia course in 2016. The courses have attracted about 146,000 participants worldwide.
The Understanding Dementia course is aimed at driving systematic change in the care of the elderly and the provision of support to carers, while the Preventing Dementia course seeks to build community-wide knowledge and capacity to tackle modifiable risk factors for dementia, potentially leading to reduced prevalence of the condition.
The latest funding will also be used to establish an evidence base of the impact of both courses, including evaluation of knowledge.
The Wicking Centre is part of UTAS’s College of Health and Medicine.
