The Know Me Dementia program aims to rapidly and easily improve health and aged care staff knowledge of the person with dementia, thereby increasing, person-centred care and quality of life. The program trains healthcare students and community volunteers to conduct reminiscence sessions with aged care residents with dementia in order to produce a 4-minute life story video and poster to capture the resident's identity and preferences.

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Our research team has been funded by the Medical Research Future Fund to evaluate the outcomes of the Know Me program.

The research will compare Know Me with reminiscence sessions only and with usual care to find out if the Know Me program helps aged care and healthcare staff understand how to provide personalised care and support for the resident, improving the resident and their family carer’s quality of life during transitions.

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It is expected that residents with dementia and their family carers will both experience improvements in quality of life and depression, with residents also expected to experience less pain, changed behaviours, loneliness, psychotropic mediation use, reduced healthcare use, and greater ease during transitions. It is expected that healthcare students will demonstrate improved attitudes towards people with dementia and staff will have improved understanding of the person with dementia’s identity and engage in more person-centred care practices.

At the end of the project, program resources will be made freely available online to assist aged care homes to implement the package at scale.

Sustainable and cost-effective interventions which build capacity in the future healthcare workforce are needed to ensure people with dementia and their carers receive person-centred care to improve their quality of life during often stressful transitions.