Lindsay Bent has been an intensive care paramedic for 34 years.
He led the introduction of motorcycle paramedics in Victoria and was the operational lead for the development of Australia’s first mobile stroke ambulance.
He’s now the clinical lead for Ambulance Victoria’s Communications Centres, developing a model for remote clinical support for paramedics and other health services.
In 2022, he completed a Churchill Fellowship to review work by the United Kingdom’s National Health Service on dementia-friendly healthcare, particularly with regard to ambulances.
So, when he puts his finger on the one thing that would really change the game for people living with dementia, Lindsay speaks as someone who identifies problems and finds solutions.
The challenge is that we all must become dementia-friendly
And while dementia-friendly ambulances and emergency departments have their place, he has his sights set much higher than that.
“I would really love to see direct leadership from the federal level downwards to the states, making dementia a priority not just within health but across the community,” says Bent.
The Australian Government is currently formulating a National Dementia Action Plan, aiming to improve and integrate “policies, services and systems for people living with dementia, their families and carers”, but Bent hopes it goes further.
“The challenge is that we all must become dementia-friendly,” he says, pointing to the UK’s 2009 National Dementia Strategy as a model that led to change in many elements of society, not just healthcare.
“If we have a look at the UK experience, when they elected to become dementia-friendly on the back of the Prime Minister’s commitment to dementia, it was not just the health system that responded.
“It was also a lot of public bodies – libraries, for example, that created dementia action plans.
“And these organisations modified their own environments to be dementia-friendly, and educated their staff, so that when people who live with dementia come into, say, a museum, they can look after them a little bit better and give them an experience that is more meaningful to them.
“So, it’s actually broader than just healthcare – it’s across the community.”
In September, Bent was a guest on our First Responders panel at the International Dementia Conference, joining a dynamic line-up that included Assistant Commissioner of South Australian Police, Scott Duvall, Sydney Adventist Hospital director of emergency Dr Guruprasad Nagaraj and dementia and mental health law advocate Julane Bowen – whose husband lives with frontotemporal dementia.
They discussed the difficult and timely question of how emergency and health services can work together to improve outcomes for people living with dementia and avoid some of the tragic scenarios that have eventuated in the past.
As the facilitator, I had a powerful opportunity to draw ideas and insights from those in a position to know what’s needed, and I hope to share more of them with you in the coming months.
While we can’t guarantee a federal response like the one Lindsay hopes for, we can push for change in the organisations we’re a part of.
The Dementia Centre and Dementia Support Australia are equipped and eager to help in any way possible, whether through training, consultancy or ongoing partnerships, like the phone-a-friend system recently set up with SA Police to support officers during incidents involving someone living with dementia.
I’d like to see the three emergency services make a collaborative commitment to become dementia-friendly
Speaking after the panel, Bent says he hopes that such partnerships – between the healthcare sector and first responders, and across the categories of emergency services – will become the new normal.
“We’ve shown throughout time that relationships are critical to the provision of healthcare,” he says.
“So, the various bodies within the broader health system need to regularly come together, engage with each other, understand each other’s challenges, understand the broader challenge that’s at hand, and work together to address the issues, both at the local level and then also at a systemic level.
“If we can embed some proper and meaningful working relationships that are continuous, then we’re going to move a lot further down the track to providing the targeted, best care for people living with dementia.”
He also urges all emergency services to work together to make a difference.
“I’d really like to see the three emergency services make a collaborative commitment to become dementia-friendly, and to have their staff all go through specific dementia-awareness training to give them the knowledge and the skills and the understanding of what they see day to day,” he says.
“It’s really critical that emergency services are given the ability to recognise what’s going on, and the skills to manage accordingly.”
I couldn’t agree more. Let’s all work together to see it happen.
Marie Alford is head of professional services at Dementia Support Australia
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