You and your family might want information about dementia, about how it might affect your lives, about what the future might hold or about how to get help and support.

Alzheimer’s Australia provides information, support, counselling, training and education to people with dementia, their family, friends and carers. For information on dementia and to arrange counselling, you can call the National Dementia Helpline.

Dementia advisors, occupational therapists, social workers, psychologists and neuropsychologists are good people to talk to early on. They can help you, and those closest to you, make sense of a diagnosis of dementia, and help you understand what it might mean, and what it won’t mean, for your life and the lives of those who care about you. They can help guide you through this change.

If you work, they can help you think about how to continue, or other options.

They can offer information directly, and put you in touch with education sessions locally or online. They can make referrals to other health professionals who specialise in working with people living with dementia. And they can point you in helpful directions with your own research.

All allied health professionals who work with people living with dementia can be a good source of information. Speech pathologists, psychologists, neuropsychologists and dietitians may have answers to specific questions that you have.