Global report calls for rehabilitation to be core to dementia care

The World Alzheimer’s Report 2025, released during Dementia Action Week, is pushing for rehabilitation to be seen as essential to dementia care rather than an optional extra.

Titled Reimagining life with dementia – the power of rehabilitation, the report argues that support to maintain independence and daily function should be as standard for dementia as it is for stroke or hip fracture recovery. Yet, across many countries, including Australia, people living with dementia are often excluded from rehabilitation services despite strong evidence of benefit.

What rehabilitation looks like

Rehabilitation for dementia, often called reablement, focuses on maintaining abilities, slowing decline, and supporting independence in everyday life. It can include physical exercise, occupational therapy, cognitive training, assistive technology and carer support. Evidence shows these approaches can delay functional loss, reduce disability, and improve quality of life.

Australian Dementia Advocate John Quinn contributed to the report, sharing how strategies such as staying socially connected, maintaining a healthy diet, and having autonomy helped him remain independent.

“We had nothing to lose,” he wrote, describing dementia rehabilitation as a matter of “thinking outside the box.”

The global picture

The report highlights international examples of how rehabilitation can be embedded in dementia care. In Japan and Malta, dementia rehabilitation is integrated into mainstream geriatric services. South Korea has more than 250 government-funded Dementia Relief Centres, which combine rehabilitation with home-based support. In Ireland, the CR-Ireland project is embedding cognitive rehabilitation directly into post-diagnostic pathways. These case studies show that rehabilitation can be delivered at scale, but they also expose the challenges of workforce shortages and the need for sustainable funding models.

Australia’s position

In Australia, rehabilitation and reablement are increasingly recognised in policy, but practice on the ground remains uneven. The National Dementia Action Plan 2024–2034 sets a ten-year roadmap that explicitly calls for post-diagnostic reablement and restorative care. From November 2025, the new Support at Home program and Aged Care Act will embed wellness and reablement more firmly into home care, with allied health expected to play a stronger role. In residential aged care, reforms following the Royal Commission and the introduction of the AN-ACC funding model are designed to remove disincentives that once rewarded dependence rather than independence. Trials such as the I-CHARP program are also now testing how structured reablement can be delivered inside aged care homes.

Recent initiatives show further momentum. The federal government’s Focus on Dementia booklet, published in 2025, highlights planned supports for people living with dementia and their carers. The Specialist Dementia Care Program is expanding in regional areas such as Geelong, providing transitional and rehabilitative support for people with severe behavioural symptoms. 

A shift in thinking

Dementia Australia CEO Professor Tanya Buchanan said the report reinforces the urgent need for post-diagnostic services, including dementia navigators to guide families to rehabilitation supports.

“When it comes to dementia, nobody can do it alone,” she said.

She also pointed to the “profound lack of understanding” about the role rehabilitation can play.

With no cure in sight, the report argues that rehabilitation must be treated as a right, not a luxury. For Australia, the challenge will be ensuring these policy commitments translate into everyday practice, making sure reablement is accessible from the point of diagnosis through to residential care.

The full report is available at Alzheimer’s Disease International.