Older Australians and their carers will soon have more opportunities for overnight respite care, following calls by the Australian Government for funding applications from community organisations that provide carer respite services to increase their services.

Medicare Australia (formerly the HIC) is examining a plan where medication charts would double as scripts in nursing homes to cut excessive paperwork and it is hoped boost GP attendance at nursing homes.

Glow-in-the-dark toilet seats have been credited with improving safety at a Melbourne hospital by cutting falls among elderly patients.

Clinical trials which have just concluded at The Prince Charles Hospital in Brisbane have demonstrated that compact monitoring devices have the potential to quickly and accurately detect falls in patients recovering from strokes.

MEMBER for Northern Tablelands Richard Torbay welcomed yesterday's announcement by Health Minister John Hatzistergos of $100,000 in funding over two years to extend the groundbreaking Memory Assessment Program (MAP).

Lisa Mitchell speaks to students who changed careers for the satisfaction of helping the aged.

With around 185,000 Australians living with dementia and with many more cases expected as our population ages, finding ways to prevent and treat this debilitating disease is crucial, the Australian Government Minister for Ageing, Julie Bishop, said today.

A key partnership between RSL Care and Southbank Institute has delivered an innovative learning program that allows aged care workers to gain formal qualifications in the course of their daily work.

A taskforce of experts on dementia has been formed to guide the implementation of more than $320 million of Australian Government supported projects tackling new projects around prevention, treatment and care for people with dementia and their carers, the Minister for Ageing, Julie Bishop, announced today.

Complete series of Dementia programs from The Rural Health Education Foundation are available for free on DVD or VHS video