The Health NZ Health Workforce Planning and Development team invited the Leadership & Advisory Group to provide them with advice on the dementia mate wareware workforce for the 2024/25 Health Workforce Plan. This meeting was the Network’s opportunity to contribute their expertise to this advice.

At the meeting, representatives from Ageing Well, Health NZ, introduced the Plan. Following this, participants worked in breakout rooms to discuss the following questions from the Health NZ workforce planning team:

  • What might we have missed or not seen clearly, looking at the data we had available on the dementia sector? They noted that there was quite limited information about workforce shortages in their core data
  • What could they have done over the next year and over the next three years that would have made the biggest difference for them?
  • What would success have looked like to them out of a Health Workforce Plan?
  • Anything else they wanted the team to know and reflect on as they started to shape their next Workforce Plan
What Do We Know About Younger Onset Dementia in Aotearoa
Author:
Brigid Ryan: Presentation to Dementia Matewareware Network Hui November 2024 
Description:
Brigid is a researcher and advocate who is passionate about understanding the challenges faced by individuals diagnosed with dementia mate wareware before the age of 65. She is a senior lecturer at the University of Auckland and Chair of the Younger Onset Dementia Aotearoa Trust. Her research focuses on frontotemporal dementia mate wareware, a condition that often strikes individuals in their younger years and how to diagnose the disease early on. Brigid leads the FTDGeNZ (the New Zealand Genetic Frontotemporal Dementia Study), a longitudinal observational study of pre-symptomatic biomarkers. 
Video link
Powerpoint
The Epidemiology of Young Onset Dementia
Author:
Etuini Ma'u: Presentation to Dementia Matewareware Network Hui November 2024 
Description:
Etuini Ma'u is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Psychological Medicine at the University of Auckland and a Consultant Old Age Psychiatrist at Te Whatu Ora Waikato. He is a member of the Dementia Matewareware Leadership and Advisory group, providing strategic advice to guide the government in achieving the vision of the Dementia Matewareware Action Plan in Aotearoa. ‘Etuini was awarded an HRC Pacific Clinical Research Training Fellowship in 2019 and the Alzheimers New Zealand Fellowship in 2022 to support his research into dementia prevention and improving dementia services for Pasifika people in Aotearoa.
Video link
PowerPoint
Younger Onset Dementia Services: A Review of Three Services in Europe
Author:
Darrall Campbell  
Description:
Darral Campbell is the Manager of Dementia Canterbury, an organisation committed to supporting people to live well in the community with dementia mate wareware for as long as possible. Her particular interest is partnerships with the community that enable access and opportunity for social connection and stimulation for those living with a dementia diagnosis. Darral received a Churchill Fellowship to explore what could be learnt from younger-onset dementia services in three different countries; Canada, the Netherlands, and Scotland.
Video Link
PowerPoint
Dementia Canterbury Younger Onset Dementia Mate Wareware Programme
Author:
Erica Collingwood
Description:
Erica is a Younger Onset Key Worker with Dementia Canterbury. She is passionate about people-centred initiatives that are fine-tuned to be age-appropriate to empower clients to continue to be themselves, be connected and be fulfilled while engaging in evidence-based activities.
Video Link
Younger Onset Dementia
Author:
Dementia New Zealand (NZ)
Description:
This help sheet provides a brief lay summary of younger onset dementia. emphasises the importance of a correct diagnosis and some aspects of caring for someone with younger onset dementia.
Link