EDUCATION AND TRAINING IN RESIDENTIAL DEMENTIA CARE IN AUSTRALIA - NEEDS, PROVISION AND DIRECTIONS

This paper summarises existing education and training in dementia for aged care workers in Australia. The majority of aged care workers have no formal qualifications, while those with formal qualifications are mostly from a nursing background. Only half of nursing staff have atte nded any dementia care training. Existing training is either service b ased and provided in-house or by private consultants, or tertiary inst itution based and provided by academics and professional educators. Th ere is considerable in-service and one-off service-based training bein g provided around Australia, but few of these training exercises are l inked to competency standards or staff appraisal. While there are some formal courses addressing training in dementia care available in ever y state of Australia, the emphasis on dementia care within generalist tertiary institution courses for aged care workers varies considerably .