Dementia

What is Dementia?

Dementia is a word that describes when a person loses their ability to think, act and react how they usually would. People with dementia can slowly lose their memories, stop understanding things and have unusual emotional reactions. Without knowing, some people may think those with dementia are ‘losing it’ when really, they have a severe disease of their brain.

What causes Dementia?

There are many things which cause dementia. The most common ones are:

  • Alzheimer’s disease – causes 2/3rds of all dementia cases
    • Caused by a disruption of brain cell signals by twisted up plaques
    • Can affect any area of the brain, so different abilities are lost
  • Vascular dementia – caused by problems with blood circulation in the brain
  • Lewy body disease – caused by the death of nerve cells
  • Frontotemporal dementia – damage and loss of function of the front part of your brain and mostly affects a person’s behaviour and language.
Scroll to Top

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people should be aware that this website contains images, voices and names of those returned to the dreaming.