Of the more than 421,000 Australians living with dementia, dementia prevalence rates of First Nations people are about three to five times as high as rates for Australia overall, and rates of dementia amongst First Nations people who live in remote and rural communities are among the highest in the world.

With these rates in mind, Dementia Australia is working to provide trusted information, education and support services to First Nations people affected by dementia located across Australia – including the recently launched Community Education Toolkit.

The Toolkit was created in response to an overwhelming need for community awareness and understanding about brain health and dementia.

The Toolkit is an interactive video-based resource, enabling communities to self-deliver information sessions and 'choose their own adventure' navigating videos and activities best suited to them.

Content covered includes practical tips to keep your brain healthy, understanding dementia and diagnosis and promoting community and reducing dementia stigma

The Toolkit was narrated and presented by ambassadors and clinical experts to create engaging videos to resonate with community audiences.

Dementia Australia chief executive Professor Tanya Buchanan told National Indigenous Times that dementia is "really a significant challenge for Australia, both in aged care, in disability and in the acute health sector".

"We currently have 421,000 Australians estimated living with dementia. That figure is predicted to double over the next 30 years in the absence of a significant intervention. For First Nations Australians, rates of dementia are estimated to be three to five times higher than in the rest of the population, and rates of dementia amongst First Nations people who live in remote and rural communities are among the highest in the world," she said.

"Care given for Aboriginal people should be culturally appropriate, and that includes prevention. So preventive health messaging, if we look at something like tackling Indigenous smoking, for example, tobacco use is a risk factor for dementia, and so programs like tackling Indigenous smoking incredibly important and highly successful, and we need to learn from those and make sure that we are continuing the successes of those sorts of programs."

Professor Buchanan noted that the Lancet Commission released a report earlier this year that showed there are 14 modifiable risk factors for dementia that, if they were tackled appropriately, would basically prevent and or delay cases of dementia.

"When we're talking about the sorts of factors that are risk factors for dementia, they are things like tobacco use, alcohol use, blood sugar, obesity, physical activity, similar public health and prevention programs that you would see in heart disease and other chronic health conditions, but also for dementia, things like social isolation, hearing loss, visual loss, and of course, addressing those issues for First Nations Australians should be done through appropriate community controlled agencies," she said.

"When we're talking about diagnosis, what we've been hearing and the AIHW reports tell us that amongst Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island communities, and for many communities, developing dementia is seen as part of growing older. We know that dementia is not an inevitable or normal part of aging, and so we need to think about how we support people to obtain a diagnosis so that that again, speaks to the real importance of ensuring that Aboriginal community controlled health organisations are resourced and supported, and it talks to some of the challenges, particularly in remote and rural areas, to get a diagnosis for anyone.

"There are access issues about diagnosis. And then, of course, if we're thinking about once someone has a diagnosis, we also need to remember that, generally speaking, two in three people who have dementia stay in the community, so most people live in their community and are supported in their communities. I think we need to think about how we are doing that, and that's very different for different cultures, different communities.

"You know what individuals likes and dislikes are, and also the various experiences of the individual who has been diagnosed with dementia, and from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspective, with the age group of people who are most likely to be developing dementia now there's going to be a significant impact of the Stolen Generations, so we need to be really conscious of that, in terms of supporting people to stay in their communities and enabling their communities to be inclusive of people living with dementia."

Professor Buchanan said anyone who needs to talk about dementia and find out more about the condition and services should contact the National Dementia Helpline, which operates 24 hours a day, every day.

"If people do end up having to go into care, the care they get must be culturally safe. We need to have people who are trained in providing dementia, specific care and culturally safe care," she said.