Funded by the Medical Research Future Fund, The Drawing Out Care Study realises a key priority for the Dementia, Ageing and Aged Care Mission, which is to "Support family carers to deliver and sustain high-quality, culturally appropriate care at home to improve the quality of life of people with dementia and their carers." With approximately 30% of older Australians being from a culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) background, increasingly from Asia, it is important to meet the needs of non-English speaking Australians with dementia.

This 3 year study aims to improve the lives of CALD family carers and people living with dementia using animations, digital fact sheets, and a multilingual chat-bot, collectively titled the Draw-Care Intervention. The animated films and digital fact sheets will be based on our partner - the World Health Organization’s - iSupport Lite programme. Using co-production methods, we will culturally adapt i-Support Lite by working with CALD family carers, clinicians, service providers, and people living with dementia, as well as our partners Dementia Australia and the Federation of Ethnic Communities Council of Australia.

The clinical and cost effectiveness of the Draw-Care Intervention will then be evaluated in a trial with 194 Italian, Greek, Mandarin, Cantonese, Hindi, Tamil, Arabic, Vietnamese, and Spanish-speaking carers. These groups reflect Australia’s top 10 established and emerging older CALD communities.

Our outcomes are significant and measurable:

1. Reductions in care burden
2. Improvements in the family carer’s mood and quality of life, and
3. Improvements in the quality of life for the person with dementia.