Find about about some of the projects the New Zealand Dementia Foundation has helped lead
The NZ Dementia Foundation, Alzheimers NZ, Dementia NZ and te Mate Wareware Advisory Rōpūworked in partnership to lead the development of the refreshed Dementia Mate Wareware Action Plan 2026-2031.
Alongside our partners, we continue to advocate for the implementation of this important blueprint into reality.
Read the refreshed Action Plan here
Read the original Dementia Mate Wareware Action Plan
Read our summary of the feedback on the draft plan
Read the letter to the minister here
Three tools to help support end-of-life care for aged care residents living with dementia mate wareware.
The Dementia End of Life project identified three existing evidence-based tools that, when used routinely, can help address these challenges and support high-quality, person-centred end-of-life and palliative care for our residents living with dementia. In short, three tools that every aged residential care facility should know about! The New Zealand Dmentia Foundation is proud to provide support for knowledge translation and a website hub for this project.
Go to the 3 tools hub
The New Zealand Dementia Foundation reviewed the evidence for best practice post-diagnostic community support in 2022.
What does the research literature tell us is ‘best practice’ for post-diagnostic community services for people living with dementia and their care partners from the perspectives of people with lived experience, experts, service providers, and research findings? This was the question posed by a review commissioned by Dementia New Zealand. The NZ Dementia Foundation was asked to investigate ‘best practice’ for post-diagnostic community services for people living with dementia. This report provides an updated review of recent literature as well as analysis of best practice approaches for core post-diagnostic community dementia services, in an attempt to reach optimistic and specific conclusions about recommendations for the future.
Read the report here
The NZ Dementia Foundation hosts the online hub for the Mini-ACE, the recommended cognitive impairment screening tool in New Zealand for non-dementia specialty health services.
The Mini-ACE webpage is sponsored by the MOH and the Dementia Framework Collaboration. It provides access to information about the Mini-ACE, the materials to administer it, and online training.
The NZ Dementia Foundation is project-managing a national Cognitive Impairment Assessment Review in response to changes in accessibility of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (“MoCA”).
The project is sponsored by the MOH and the Dementia Framework Collaboration. In the first phase of the project a multidisciplinary working group prepared a briefing about which instrument should be endorsed as New Zealand’s primary recommended cognitive test for dementia assessment in primary care and non-dementia-specific services.
The NZ Dementia Foundation is helping lead a project to develop guidance for clinical support of people with lifelong intellectual disability who develop a dementia.
The NZ Dementia Foundation has managed a working group made up of people from across the NZ Intellectual Disability sector to develop a cognitive impairment pathway for assessment, diagnosis, intervention and support for people with intellectual disability who develop dementia. Regional trials will be completed in 2020.
The Dementia Knowledge Exchange programme is about bringing people and knowledge together to make positive change.
Each year we co-organise one-day knowledge seminars in collaboration with Dementia NZ and local organisations in three regions. Entry to the day is free due to generous sponsorship from Summerset.
As a NZ Dementia Foundation member you will be notified of these events.
2020 Canterbury Knowledge Exchange Programme
The NZ Dementia Foundation supported the development of an education resource for professionals who work with Māori whānau living with dementia.
Working with the Brain Research NZ project manager, the NZ Dementia Foundation (then NZDC) supervised and supported the development of online resources for the Goodfellow Unit website. The resource is designed for people in the health and social care sectors who work with tangata whenua who develop dementia.
At the same time, footage was also shot to contribute to making a resource for Māori whānau. This resource is now available on the Te Puna Ora o Mataatua Trust’s website.
View the resource for professionals here.
View the resource for whānau here.
Keep up to date and share your views in the Māori equity and responsiveness community forum here.
The New Zealand Dementia Foundation (previously NZDC) contributed to the development of the resource Supporting Family and Whānau of People Living with Dementia – Education Guidelines.
As a member of the National Dementia Framework Collaboration, the NZ Dementia Foundation worked to develop these guidelines. They set standards and goals for providers of dementia education to family and whānau.
View the guidelines here
NZ Dementia Foundation (then NDC) organised the national Dementia Summit in 2015.
In 2015 the NZ Dementia Foundation responded to the Director General of Health’s question, “Who needs to do what, when and how, to improve outcomes for people living with dementia?” by organising a dementia summit to enable the sector to have a national discussion about the way forward for dementia care in Aotearoa New Zealand. 224 participants attended, including health professionals, service providers, government officials, educators, researchers, people affected by dementia, and family/whānau care-partners, all of whom shared their experience, knowledge and expertise. The NZ Dementia Foundation wrote a summary report and recommendations from the Summit.