Federal Aged Care Minister Ken Wyatt and Health Minister Greg Hunt said the unit was to be part of a ‘world first’ national network of 35 units, which would care for people with the most difficult, advanced dementia.

Mr Wyatt said the site of Tasmania’s new unit would be decided in consultation with the state government.

“The department is consulting with states and territories to determine where the first 14 units will be allocated.”

He said the units would offer best practice person-centred care for people exhibiting very severe behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia.

Treatment would aim to get the person back to less intensive care and would include regular specialists, reducing or stabilising symptoms, and sharing specialist best practice for dementias.

The nine-bed units will generally be located in an aged care home, and patients will have been through a standard assessment.

There will be one for each primary health network, and the remaining four would be sited according to need.

The first 15 units would be open by early 2020, with the remaining 20 open by 2023.

New South Wales will get the most units, at 10, with seven in Queensland and six in Victoria.

The network will cost $70 million a year to run, and will be the third level of dementia care funded by the federal government.

The other two programs are the dementia behaviour management advisory service and the severe behaviour response teams.

Dementia Australia estimates that in six years time, in 2025, there will be more than 300 people a day joining the population with dementia.