THE PROBLEM OF DEMENTIA IN AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINAL AND TORRES STRAIT ISLANDER COMMUNITIES: AN OVERVIEW
✍ Scribed by P. A. POLLITT
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1997
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 133 KB
- Volume
- 12
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0885-6230
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
The concept of dementia in old age in Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities is intrinsically paradoxical. Firstly, few indigenous people reach old age. Secondly, from some indigenous points of view, dementia is either not recognized as a condition or as a problem, or, in the case of the more disruptive manifestations of cognitive impairment, is perceived as madness'. Moreover, in the wider context of profound political, social and economic inequality experienced by most indigenous people, the western medical category of dementia may appear to be of relatively minor importance. However, government initiatives in aged care generally and dementia care in particular which are designed to address the ageing of the Australian population as a whole also include the nation's older indigenous people. This articleÐbased on a review of published work, supplemented by discussions with indigenous and non-indigenous individuals involved in indigenous aged care and mental healthÐexamines some of the issues surrounding cognitive decline in old age for Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders. More speci®cally, it looks at the problems involved in assessing and diagnosing cognitive decline and dementia, especially among people who follow more traditional ways of life, and in providing services to suerers and their carers. In doing so, it considers some of the relative meanings of old age', abnormal old age', mental disorder', sickness' and dementia'.