Going beyond ‘tick the box’ training

University of Canberra physiotherapy student Matthew Boom has won high praise for raising awareness of the benefits of physical activity for people living with dementia.

“There comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they’re falling in.” Desmond Tutu

This quote has been something of a guiding principle for Dementia Training Australia (DTA) since our early days as a national consortium. We know that today’s problem/task orientation to caring for people living with dementia and their families, deeply embedded by previous models of training, is not working for the benefit of residents, patients or staff.

So how can we change this? There is no easy answer, of course, but we are confident that we have developed a model of training delivery that improves the well-being of staff as well as people living with dementia.

Mr Boom took out first prize in Dementia Training Australia’s National Dementia Storytelling Competition for his eye-catching poster that captures how physical activity improves quality of life for people living with dementia.