“while wheelchair and mobility impaired travelers are better catered for these days, there are no such policies, guidelines or training for airport and airline staff to ease the experience for people with dementia”
Airline travel is often a stressful experience for even the most seasoned, healthy traveler. There is a profusion of stimuli – crowds; time pressures; layers of security procedures; forests of signs, symbols and directions; increasingly more automated electronic systems to contend with; different languages, often vast distances to cover, and a cacophony of sounds – and that’s just the airport!
So spare a thought for someone living with dementia, for whom the experience can assume nightmarish qualities.
If you or someone you adore has dementia but is still well and truly up for travel and adventure (which many people who have dementia are), then you will be well aware of some of the challenges you have to contend with. And while wheelchair and mobility impaired travelers are better catered for these days, there are no such policies, guidelines or training for airport and airline staff to ease the experience for people with dementia.
It is something that dementia advocates and researchers would like to see change in the future and they are looking for input from anyone who has had the experience.
Start the conversation
Dr Maria O’Reilly, QUT Research Fellow with the Dementia Collaborative Research Centre: Carers and Consumers (DCRC:CC) has launched two surveys to ‘start the conversation’ by seeking input from people with dementia, carers, pilots, flight attendants and other airline and airport staff on their experiences.
“We know confusion can occur under high altitude conditions and that increases the risk of a person with dementia experiencing medical complications like disorientation and agitation,” Dr O’Reilly said.
“Air travel is so accessible these days and having dementia should not automatically stop an individual with dementia from flying but we need to explore the implications of flying for people with dementia, their companions, other passengers and airline and airport staff.
“The surveys, being conducted on behalf of the DCRC:CC are designed to provide ideas and strategies towards the creation of guidelines for airlines and airports and appropriate advice for travellers with dementia and their companions, as well as training for staff on how to recognise and deal with a situation involving a passenger with dementia.
Dr O’Reilly said the surveys will help researchers to understand what the barriers are to air travel for people with dementia. “Guidelines exist for other impairments and dementia is not going to become less of an issue any time soon,” she said.
Two surveys
There are two surveys – one is designed for people with dementia and carers of people with dementia. The other survey has been designed for airline and airport staff.
They have been put together with assistance from a panel of experts including a pilot, a former flight attendant and someone with dementia who is a seasoned traveller.”
According to Alzheimer’s Australia there are now more 342,800 Australians living with dementia, a figure that – without a medical breakthrough – will almost triple by 2050. Of these, approximately 25,100 have Younger Onset Dementia (a diagnosis of dementia under the age of 65), while around 1.2 million people are involved in the care of a person with dementia
Contribute your views
Dr O’Reilly said the surveys take only 10-20 minutes to complete and are anonymous, although participants also have the option to volunteer to be contacted by the research team for an interview.
If you are person with dementia or a carer of someone with dementia: Click here to take the survey for people with dementia and their carers.
If you work for an airline or an airport: Click here to take the 5-10 minute survey for airline and airport staff.
