When Dementia Touches Work, Support Needs to Be Practical
Dementia is often spoken about as something that happens outside work.
But workplaces are part of the picture too.
A worker may be living with dementia themselves. Another may be supporting a parent, partner or family member whose needs are changing. Someone else may be trying to balance appointments, disrupted sleep, caring responsibilities and a job they still value.
During Dementia Action Week, 21 to 27 September 2026, Dementia Australia is encouraging Australians to talk more openly about dementia. Almost half a million Australians are living with dementia, while more than 1.7 million people are involved in their care.
For workplaces, that conversation needs to go further than awareness.
The practical question is: What happens when dementia begins to affect someone’s working life?
The answer should not start with assumptions about what that person can or cannot do.
It should start with a conversation about the work, the person, what has changed and what support may actually help.
Dementia Can Touch Work in Different Ways
There are two situations workplaces need to distinguish.
A worker may be living with dementia
Dementia does not only affect people after they have left the workforce.
Younger onset dementia affects people under 65, and Dementia Australia notes that people diagnosed while younger are more likely to still be working and supporting families.
Dementia Australia also notes that dementia can affect communication, concentration and memory, but that with support, many people can continue working. Depending on the individual, this may involve reviewing responsibilities, adjusting how work is organised or regularly checking whether the role remains suitable.
That is very different from assuming a diagnosis automatically means someone can no longer contribute.
A worker may be caring for someone with dementia
This can affect work in another way.
Appointments, changes at home, disrupted sleep, additional responsibilities and uncertainty can create pressure that follows someone into their working day.
In an earlier Dementia Australia survey of carers, 80 per cent of respondents caring for someone living with dementia reported making some form of change to their employment because of their caring responsibilities.
Those circumstances do not make someone unsafe or incapable.
But they may mean that fatigue, workload, concentration, scheduling or flexibility need a proper conversation.
Managers Do Not Need to Become Health Experts
One reason these conversations can be avoided is because managers worry about saying the wrong thing.
That is understandable.
But a supervisor does not need to diagnose dementia or provide medical advice.
They do need to know how to respond respectfully when someone says their circumstances are affecting work.
A useful conversation stays focused on what is relevant:
Is anything making the current work harder to manage?
Are particular duties, hours or conditions creating difficulty?
Has fatigue become an issue?
Would a change in workload, timing or task organisation help?
Is additional support needed?
What information actually needs to be shared with others?
The goal is not to gather unnecessary personal information.
It is to understand what the person needs and whether anything about the work needs to change.
Support Should Fit the Person and the Work
There is no single workplace response to dementia.
What is suitable for an accountant may not be suitable for a truck driver.
What works in an office may not work around mobile plant.
What helps someone caring for a parent may be completely different from what helps someone living with younger onset dementia.
Sometimes small adjustments make a real difference
Depending on the individual and the work, practical options could include:
clearer task priorities
more predictable working hours
time for appointments
changes to start or finish times
temporarily reviewing workload
reducing unnecessary distractions
breaking complex work into clearer stages
providing reminders or written instructions
reviewing particular duties as circumstances change
Dementia Australia’s guidance for people with younger onset dementia includes examples such as matching tasks with current abilities, simplifying routines, providing a quieter workspace and allowing time during the day to reduce the impact of fatigue.
The important part is that support is discussed with the person rather than designed around assumptions about them.
Safety-Critical Work Needs Careful Planning
Some roles need additional consideration because a momentary loss of concentration or significant fatigue can have greater consequences.
Think about:
operating plant or machinery
driving
working at height
electrical work
working around traffic
high-risk maintenance
remote or isolated work
tasks where an error could seriously affect another person
This does not mean someone affected by dementia, either directly or through caring responsibilities, should automatically be removed from those duties.
It means the workplace needs to understand the actual risk.
For a worker living with dementia, Dementia Australia recommends discussing with a doctor whether symptoms affect the ability to perform the job or create safety risks at work.
For carers, fatigue may be the more relevant issue.
Safe Work Australia describes fatigue as physical, mental or emotional impairment that can affect a person's ability to function safely. Its guidance emphasises consultation, work design, reasonable workloads and having processes that allow workers to report fatigue without fear of punishment.
The question should always be about the actual person, actual work and actual risk, not a label.
Stigma Can Make the Workplace Response Harder
Dementia Action Week's 2026 message is “It’s time to talk about dementia.”
There is a reason conversation matters.
Dementia Australia identifies stigma and discrimination as continuing problems and says greater understanding can improve support for people affected by dementia.
In a workplace, stigma might look less obvious.
A worker may worry that disclosing a diagnosis will change how colleagues see them.
A carer may avoid mentioning what is happening at home because they do not want to appear unreliable.
A supervisor might avoid the conversation because they are uncomfortable.
Colleagues may start making assumptions about what someone can manage.
That silence can make practical support much harder to put in place.
Good leadership is not about knowing exactly what to say from the beginning.
It is about creating enough trust for the conversation to happen and then responding appropriately.
We have spoken before about Why Leadership Empathy Is Not Enough to Prevent Psychosocial Harm. The same principle applies here. Caring matters, but people also need practical decisions about work, workload and support.
This Is Relevant Across Every Industry
Dementia is not a healthcare-sector workplace issue.
A construction worker can become a carer.
A business owner can receive a diagnosis.
A warehouse supervisor may be managing disrupted sleep while supporting a parent.
A professional working from an office may need greater flexibility around appointments.
A farmer, driver, tradesperson, administrator or manufacturing worker can all be affected.
The work may determine what adjustments are possible, but the need for respectful communication applies everywhere.
That is why this belongs in a broader WHS conversation.
People do not leave major changes in their lives at the gate, in the car park or when they log onto work.
What This Means For You
If someone in your workplace tells you dementia is affecting their life, directly or through someone they care for, you do not need to have every answer immediately.
Start by listening.
Understand what they are asking for.
Keep personal information private.
Look at the real demands of the job.
Consider whether fatigue, workload, work hours or particular tasks need attention.
Avoid deciding what the person is capable of before having the conversation.
And where health or fitness-for-work questions genuinely need professional input, involve appropriately qualified support rather than trying to make medical judgments internally.
Most importantly, keep reviewing the arrangement.
Circumstances can change.
The support that works today may need to change later.
Practical Checks for Workplace Leaders
Consider whether your workplace is prepared before someone needs the conversation:
Do managers know how to respond respectfully to a personal health disclosure?
Can workers discuss caring responsibilities without immediately being treated as a problem?
Are privacy and confidentiality understood?
Can workloads, rosters or duties be reviewed when circumstances change?
Is there a clear way for workers to raise fatigue concerns?
Do safety-critical roles have an appropriate process for reviewing fitness for work when genuinely required?
Do workers know where they can find qualified external support?
Are agreed adjustments reviewed instead of being left indefinitely?
These are not dementia-specific management systems.
They are signs of a workplace that is capable of responding when people's circumstances change.
The Real Lesson
Dementia Action Week creates a reason to start the conversation.
But good workplace support cannot finish when the awareness week does.
For someone living with dementia, remaining connected to meaningful work may still be possible with the right support. For someone caring for a person with dementia, flexibility and understanding may help them continue doing a job they value while managing something significant outside it.
The role of the workplace is not to diagnose.
It is not to make assumptions.
It is to listen, understand the work, manage genuine risks and find practical ways forward wherever possible.
Because when dementia touches work, awareness matters.
What happens next matters even more.
