Sykes steps away from Dementia Australia

Director of Dementia Australia’s Centre for Dementia Learning Dr David Sykes has announced he will be leaving the organisation on 30 September after 15 years with the peak body.

He told Community Care Review that the decision to leave was not easy, and that he was “absolutely privileged” to have led such an amazing and inspiring team.

Reflecting on what he and his team have achieved during his time at Dementia Australia, he said highlights include:

• using technology to help people experience what it might feel like living with dementia – which significantly increased learning outcomes and related programs have since been adopted internationally
• developing education programs
• building partnerships with universities to evaluate Centre for Dementia Learning programs.

“I’m really proud of how we’ve been able to contribute to a growing evidence base about what works and the difference that we can make in improving dementia care, because staff are obviously the core part of any kind of quality of care provided and that’s an important aspect of what we’ve been able to do at the centre,” Dr Sykes said.

Dr Sykes also highlighted that more broadly, it has been good to see organisations shift over the last 15 years from just having dementia training to being clear on what the model of care is and having a broader strategy about staff training.

“The key for me is the culture. You have a culture that promotes learning. That’s where I think I’ve seen the biggest change and shift in how dementia care can be so much better and so much more based on relationships and engagement rather than on tasks and completing a whole lot of tasks that don’t necessarily benefit the individual,” he said.

Looking to the future, he told CCR he hoped to see further government investment in leadership in dementia care, a need highlighted by the royal commission.

“It’s the thing that will enable training of the staff to stick,” he said. “Because [having] someone there who can coach, mentor, role model and support staff in the application of the learning around dementia care, but also sometimes the unlearning and the relearning of better ways of providing care, is critical.”

“For many years, we were in a position where we were delivering more of the foundational programs – which is still equally important. You still need to build that dementia capability… but unless you’ve got leaders, who have a heightened and increased level of knowledge, and you also have skill sets around leadership and coaching and mentoring, emotional intelligence, we’re not going to see the dial shifting in dementia care and aged care to the levels that we would expect and that I think the broader Australian community would expect based on what was discovered through the royal commission,” he added. 

Dr Sykes told CCR he will be moving to a role in the aged care sector, and is looking forward to “a broader spectrum of considerations,” remaining in the leadership space, undertaking further innovation and continuing to “influence and inform the quality of dementia care.”

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