National Palliative Care Week 2026 | Special Guest Lecture: Rethinking Dementia and End-of-Life Care
Rethinking Dementia and End-of-Life Care
Special Guest: Dr Michael Chapman
Date: Thursday 14 May 2026
Location: Livestream
As part of National Palliative Care Week 2026, Palliative Care Australia hosted a special guest lecture Rethinking Dementia and End-of-Life Care. The lecture was delivered at Parliament House (Thursday 14 May 2026) by a national leader in palliative care, Dr Michael Chapman, Director of Palliative Care at Canberra Hospital and Lead of the Palliative Care Research Unit at Clare Holland House.
In line with this year’s theme, Getting to the heart of it: Big Questions. Real Answers, Michael discussed what dementia means for our communities, and how that influences the impact dementia has on us all. He will discussed new ways to rethink dementia which have implications for palliative care support for people with the condition. The lecture furthered considered how better conversations, practical support and person-centred care can improve quality of life, dignity and connection.
Watch livestream recording
Rethinking Dementia: ripples and responses is a book that argues dementia affects and involves not only individuals with a dementia diagnosis, but the networks of people close to and/or caring for that individual. The book encourages us to consider dementia not as the condition of an isolated individual but as a process of change within a social and relational system.
Dementia challenges deeply held values of autonomy, individualism, independence, and ideas of personhood. Rather than focus on the question of a cure for dementia, Michael investigates how it is possible for networks of people to understand and learn from the changes that the arrival of dementia bring about. He gives important historical, social, medical and philosophical context to the medicalised view of dementia that prevails today. Michael also shows that dementia can have many meanings and can provide opportunities to rethink deeply held assumptions.
The book is written for a wide public and will be an important resource for those who belong to the networks of family and carers who work with people directly touched by dementia and for dementia sufferers themselves.
