World Alzheimer’s Day: A Diagnosis Matters - And So Does What Happens Next

Shane Warren

3 days ago

3 min read

MEDIA RELEASE

For Immediate Release

21 September 2026

World Alzheimer’s Day: A Diagnosis Matters - And So Does What Happens Next

AAMHP calls for earlier conversations about dementia and stronger psychological support for individuals, families and carers

The Australian Association of Mental Health Practitioners (AAMHP) is using World Alzheimer’s Day to call for earlier conversations about dementia and greater recognition of the psychological and emotional support needed by people living with dementia, their families and carers.

World Alzheimer’s Day is observed on 21 September as part of World Alzheimer’s Month. The 2026 international campaign, “The Earlier You Know, The More You Can Do: A Dementia Diagnosis Matters,” focuses attention on the importance of early diagnosis, reducing stigma and helping people access appropriate information and support.

The message is particularly significant in Australia, where an estimated 446,500 people are living with dementia in 2026, including approximately 29,000 people with young onset dementia. Around 1.7 million Australians are involved in caring for someone living with dementia. Dementia is now also Australia’s leading cause of death.

Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia, accounting for an estimated 60–70 per cent of dementia cases worldwide.

AAMHP Secretary Susan Sandy said earlier diagnosis can give individuals and families something that is often underestimated: time.

“A dementia diagnosis can be frightening, but uncertainty can be frightening too. Earlier diagnosis gives people and families more opportunity to understand what is happening, ask questions, make decisions together and put the right supports around them.” [Susan Sandy]

She said mental-health and counselling support has an important place alongside medical assessment and dementia-specific services.

“There can be grief, fear, anger, changing family roles and enormous uncertainty. Partners may gradually become carers. Adult children may find themselves making decisions they never expected to make. Good support recognises the person living with dementia, but it also sees the family around them.” [Susan Sandy]

AAMHP Chair Shane Warren said dementia should not be spoken about solely as a condition of memory or ageing.

“A diagnosis changes more than cognitive functioning. It can affect identity, relationships, independence, work, finances and a person’s sense of what the future might hold. That means our response has to extend beyond diagnosis and clinical treatment to psychological wellbeing, family support, social connection and dignity.” [Shane Warren]

The World Health Organization estimates that 57 million people were living with dementia globally in 2021, with almost 10 million new cases occurring each year. WHO notes that dementia can have profound physical, psychological, social and economic impacts on people living with the condition and those who care for them.

World Alzheimer’s Day also coincides this year with the beginning of Dementia Action Week in Australia, 21–27 September, which is encouraging Australians to talk more openly about dementia and challenge the silence, misunderstanding and stigma that can delay diagnosis and isolate families.

AAMHP encourages mental-health practitioners to understand dementia as part of the wider landscape of practice, particularly when working with older Australians, carers, couples and families.

Practitioners may encounter dementia not because somebody presents asking for “dementia counselling”, but because they arrive experiencing grief, anxiety, relationship change, carer fatigue, uncertainty, loneliness or the emotional consequences of a changing family system.

Recognising those experiences — and knowing when to connect people with dementia-specific, medical or other specialist services — is an important part of responsive mental-health practice.

This World Alzheimer’s Day, AAMHP supports the call for earlier conversations, earlier diagnosis and better understanding.

Because a diagnosis matters. And what happens to individuals and families after that diagnosis matters just as much.