Culturally tailored dementia education — resources released

La Trobe University has released its MindCare resources, designed to increase understanding of modifiable risk factors for dementia in multicultural communities. The resources offer general, non-medical guidance and practical lifestyle tips to support dementia risk reduction from mid-life onwards, intended to empower communities to take proactive steps towards better brain health.

The evidence-based materials are intended to enable community organisations, local councils and other service providers to deliver brief, engaging workshops using their own bilingual community educators. The program is available in Vietnamese, Hindi, Greek and Arabic, for accessibility and cultural relevance, and was co-created in partnership with multicultural communities, health professionals, researchers and service providers.

“By working closely with communities, we have created resources that are meaningful, practical and easy to use,” said Associate Professor Josefine Antoniades, Lead Investigator from La Trobe’s School of Humanities and Social Sciences. “They equip bilingual community educators to deliver workshops in their own language and embed activities and discussions that resonate with their communities’ needs and experiences.”

Educators have access to:

• in-language presenter slide packs with speaker notes (in Vietnamese, Greek, Hindi, Arabic)
• a facilitator manual (in English) — to support preparation and delivery
• participant handouts — available in-language and in English; and
• take-home tip sheet on dementia risk reduction (in Vietnamese, Greek, Hindi, Arabic)
   

Supported by the Commonwealth of Australia through the Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF), the MindCare resources are designed to support the delivery of interactive, two-hour sessions tailored to the cultural and linguistic needs of community members and are free for non-commercial use.

The MindCare resources can be downloaded here.

Image credit: iStock.com/FG Trade