Dementia’s hidden truth: 65,000 Australians living alone with dementia

Dementia’s hidden truth: Study to focus on 65,000 Australians living alone with dementia (ABC News)

An estimated 65,000 Australians are living alone with dementia and researchers are keen to know more about their lives.

In the new year, a team from the Dementia Collaborative Research Centre will launch a study into the lives of Australians with dementia who live alone.

Of the 225,000 Australians estimated to be living in the community with dementia, not in an aged care facility, about a third live by themselves.

Lead researcher Dr Jennifer Fletcher said the study wanted to establish how people at home with the condition were faring.

She said one of the biggest problems was locating the study’s subjects, as dementia sufferers were sometimes too afraid to answer the door and the phone.

We really want to know how they’re doing, and in our study we want to compare them to people who don’t live alone