Dementia STARs Education Resources

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Welcome to Dementia STARs®

Come and join the Dementia STARs journey to promote excellent person-centred dementia care at your location.

Dementia STARs stands for Short Trainings in Awareness and Responsiveness.

We are delighted to offer eight Dementia STARs modules, each introducing a person-centred approach to a key element of care when supporting people living with dementia.

For each module, we offer

Pre-recorded video presentation for self-paced individual learning
Facilitator's kit with all the resources needed to run an engaging group education session.

The content is pitched at a level that will be comfortable for all staff, especially kaiawhina (support workers/caregivers).
Access to the resources is free.

Dementia STARs education is a partnership between the New Zealand Dementia Foundation and the CHT Healthcare Trust Aged Care Fund. The CHT Healthcare Trust Aged Care Fund offers grants for projects that aim to enhance the well-being of older people through improved access to care, research into their specific needs, and workforce development.

We are proud to fund the NZ Dementia Foundation’s development and delivery of Dementia STARs and believe these resources will make a real difference to the lives of people living with dementia and those who care for them.

- Carriann Hall, Chief Executive, CHT Healthcare Trust

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

Dementia STARs

Education Series

Welcome to Dementia STARs®

Come and join the Dementia STARs journey to promote excellent person-centred dementia care at your location.

Bathing and Dementia

Care workers around the world say that personal care tasks, such as bathing or showering, can be one of the most challenging aspects of their job. In this session, we think about bathing from a person-centred perspective, covering: the invitation, the experience, and stepping back.

Senses and Dementia

Sensory experiences can add pleasure, joy, comfort, and stress reduction for people living with dementia. In this session, we explore sensory preferences, challenges, and a personalised sensory toolkit for each individual we support.

Pain and Dementia

We know pain is common among people living with dementia, but it is often under-recognised and under-treated. In this session, we explore how to remember pain awareness through the O.U.C.H. (Observe, Understand, Communicate, Help) approach.

Eating Well and Dementia

Eating well is essential for our health and well-being. For people living with dementia, this is especially true. In this session, we'll explore the practical aspects of support through encouragement, enablement, and adaptation of existing eating habits.

Continence and Dementia

Staying continent for as long as possible is something that we all want to do. This session explores some of the practical and intuitive ways that we can help make this possible for the people living with dementia that we support.

Hydration and Dementia

Our bodies are 60% water, so every cell requires water to function properly. Dehydration is common among people living with dementia, especially older people. In this session, we explore three key messages: Don't Wait, Hydrate, and Stick to Thick (when needed).

Falls and Dementia

In this session, we explore how we can Move, Improve, and Remove common reasons people living with dementia fall through with common-sense methods. We’ll also discuss how to put this into action before we leave and after every fall.

Delirium and Dementia

Delirium is a serious and common condition, it can be thought of as an acute brain failure. People living with dementia have a much greater risk of developing delirium. In this session we cover how to suspect, support and prevent delirium.