ABSTRACT
This chapter identifies the causes of stress and grief for the carers of people with dementia in the final stages. It provides recommendations for their care and that of people with dementia. Government aged-care funding is provided for holistic care, for psychosocial and spiritual care as well as physical care, but the former are easily overlooked and difficult to evaluate. Carers have been compared to the frog in an old Chinese proverb. Carer health will improve after the person they are caring for is admitted to residential care, but the carer will continue to need specialized support during the transition, the period of residential care, and the death of the person with dementia. Dementia is a syndrome, a collection of signs and symptoms of cognitive deficits. The syndrome is progressive, has multiple causes collectively and commonly called dementing illnesses, and ends inevitably with death.
