Dementia

The Hon. C. BONAROS (15:40): Today, I wish to speak about the correlation between dementia and loneliness. At the outset, I was prompted by a very thought-provoking Parliamentary Friends of Dementia event in the last sitting week, and would like to thank the Hon. Erin Thompson and the Hon. Penny Pratt for bringing that event to this place, where Dementia Australia presented a range of interactive experiences designed to convey what it is like to live with and to care for someone with dementia.

A lot of work went into that by Dementia Australia, and it was a great opportunity to see the extraordinary work they do on this front. The events themselves included participating in a virtual reality experience, the Enabling Education Dementia Immersive Experience. The objective was to attempt to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night and experience the challenges associated with that. I also attempted to persuade an AI simulation named Ted to shower for the day, which proved surprisingly difficult. Both tasks were confronting and difficult to achieve.

Dementia Australia curated these experiences by interviewing and drawing on the lived experiences of people and individuals in the early stages of dementia. The association works to improve the lives of those who care for or are suffering from this heartbreaking disease, and what they do is nothing short of remarkable. We know there is a clear link and correlation between loneliness and dementia, and it is one of the issues I spoke about to the organisers of the event.

According to the State of the Nation Report on Social Connection in Australia 2023, the risk of older adults developing dementia is increased by a staggering 50 per cent when they experience prolonged loneliness. They are extraordinary figures. As I have highlighted on several occasions in this place, loneliness impacts one in three Australians. We have figures that show that feeling lonely is one of the major risk factors for cognitive decline and dementia and Alzheimer's disease, amongst others. Studies have been published in the past that have shown the relationship between loneliness and subsequent brain changes. We know that researchers in the past have recorded the level of loneliness amongst dementia-free adults of the average age of 75, alongside cognitive tests and brain MRI scans, and we can see the correlation between these issues.

Over the next 10 years I am advised that something like 22 per cent of the lonely participants developed dementia compared with just 13 per cent of those not classified as lonely. There are obviously degrees of loneliness when we speak about it, but the evidence is overwhelming in terms of the impact it has, particularly in terms of increasing the risk of diseases across the board, and dementia more specifically. I know that this is something that is specifically on Dementia Australia's radar and is one of the issues that we discussed at length at that event.

We know also that the people most likely to experience dementia are older people. Yes, they can join social groups, but there is an extraordinary amount of work being done by groups like Dementia Australia to keep them more engaged, even at home where they may not have the benefits of being able to join those social groups. Carers who look after people with severe loneliness are also recorded as being 37 per cent more likely to experience loneliness themselves, compared with 30 per cent of non-carers.

I have said that the correlation between loneliness and dementia is just one part, but it is nonetheless an important one. I commend the organisers of this parliamentary friends group. I thank them especially for bringing this event to Parliament House. It was truly eye-opening. I would also like to acknowledge the very important work of the Hon. Sarah Game in terms of highlighting children's dementia. It is one thing to contemplate life with dementia; I think it is unfathomable to even contemplate the impact this would have on young children, so I do acknowledge the work that she has done and her advocacy in this space. With those words, I would like to give a huge shout-out to Hamish from Pembroke for helping me with today's MOI.