Dementia Services: An Australian View

Outsiders may view Australia as a young country, but in geological terms it is the oldest continent, evolving a unique fauna over 40 million years and inhabited for at least 30 000 years by an indigenous people whose world was shattered by European invaders in 1788 (Hughes, 1987). Today’s Australian population is ageing as rapidly as any in the developed world bar those of Canada, Japan, and the remnants of Yugoslavia (Jorm, 1990). Other realities that shape the requirements for and delivery of Australian dementia services include distance, urbanization, multiculturalism, relative economic decline and the unique structure of Australian health services.