Models of care to address unmet of older Indigenous with dementia their families and communites living in remote WA

对土著老年人，特别是偏远和农村地区老年人的健康和未满足的需求，一般都没有进行研究。众所周知，土著人的预期寿命比非土著人大约短20岁。非土著人在老年人（如75岁）通常患的许多疾病，在土著人口中在更年轻的时候就能看到。这些病症包括痴呆、福尔斯、失禁、早发性心脏病和中风。在过去4年中，该项目的申请人已开始解决土著老年人面临的一些健康问题，特别是痴呆症这一具有挑战性的领域。作者开发了一种文化上适当的评估工具，以帮助确定老年土著人是否患有痴呆症。这种方法非常成功，现在澳大利亚偏远和农村地区的卫生专业人员经常使用。一项调查已进入最后完成阶段，以确定金伯利偏远地区出现痴呆症和相关老年病迹象和症状的估计人数。令人遗憾的是，初步数据表明，痴呆症的发生率高于该年龄组人群的预期。该项目的下一阶段是通过采访金伯利和皮尔巴拉偏远地区的痴呆症患者及其家人、社区和服务提供者，确定这一弱势群体未得到满足的需求。这将确定提供护理的文化上适当和实际的方式，以帮助患有这种疾病的人及其家庭和社区。

The health and unmet needs of older Indigenous people, particularly in remote and rural areas is generally under researched. It is well known that the life expectancy of indigenous people is approximately 20 years younger than non-Indigenous counterparts. Many illnesses generally experienced by non Indigenous people in older ages (e.g. 75 years) are seen at a much younger age in Indigenous populations. These conditions include dementia, falls, incontinence, premature heart disease and strokes. Over the last 4 years the applicants of this project have started to address some of the health related problems faced by older Indigenous people, particularly the challenging area of dementia. The authors have developed a culturally appropriate assessment tool to help determine if an older Indigenous person has dementia. This has been very successful and is now frequently used by health professionals in remote and rural areas of Australia. A survey is in the final stages of completion to determine the estimated number of people in remote areas of the Kimberley who manifest signs and symptoms of dementia and associated old age diseases. Preliminary data sadly indicate that the frequency of dementia is higher than expected for people of this age group. The next phase of this project is to determine the unmet needs of this vulnerable group, by interviewing those with dementia and their families, communities and service providers in remote areas of Kimberley and Pilbara. This will determine culturally appropriate and practical ways to provide care to assist those with this condition and their families and communities.