Call for papers NOW OPEN!
What’s your story?
Your work or lived experience could make an impact on dementia care – so tell us all about it.
#IDC2026 will be held at the Hilton, Sydney, on 4-5 June 2026
This is your chance to be part of the whole story of dementia care!
Submit a paper if you're a:
- Care practitioner with a focus on complex dementia, palliative care and positive ageing
- Scientific, clinical or psychosocial researcher
- Person with living with dementia or a carer
The deadline to submit is 5pm AEDT Wednesday, 22 October 2025
Need inspiration?
Real Lives, Real Voices – Lived Experience at the Centre
Care shaped by those who live it
We invite people living with dementia and their carers to share their experiences, challenges and ideas for change. Your insights help us build systems and services that reflect what truly matters - you.
Person-Centred Practice – More Than a Buzzword
Are we truly seeing the person behind the diagnosis?
Explore how deep connection, trust and continuity are being embedded (or resisted) in practice. What’s helping? What’s holding us back? Let’s go beyond compliance and rethink care through relationships and personhood.
A Place to Belong – Rethinking Home and Community
From 'services' to spaces that feel like home
What does 'home' mean in dementia care today? Share your insights on day services, respite, co-housing, or new models of community-based support and support at home. What does a truly person-centred home environment look like?
Residential Care Reinvented
Designing care that sees the whole person
How are ratings, policies or innovation reshaping residential care? Let’s discuss what ‘quality’ truly means, how complexity is being managed, and what the next generation of care homes should look like.
The Work You Do – Stories from the Field
What are you doing that brings the whole person into focus?
Whether you're driving innovation, facing complex challenges, or reshaping daily practice – we want to hear about it. This is your platform to speak up, share your impact, and shape the future of dementia care.
The Kaleidoscope – Identity, Intersectionality, Dignity and Compassion in a Diverse Community
Building strength and kindness within difference
We live and work in an era of diversity, with tensions over tolerance, agreement and difference. How do we create safe communities with dignity and respect for people with dementia and those that care for them when we may not understand each other?
People Power – Growing, Supporting and Valuing the Workforce
It takes people to care for people
From burnout to breakthroughs: how do we recruit, retain and uplift a workforce that delivers whole-person care? Share solutions that honour the skills, diversity, and humanity of formal and informal carers alike.
Learning to Inspire – Coaching, Mentorship and Meaningful Training
Education that connects, not just complies
How do we move beyond box-ticking and into transformational learning? Whether it’s Cert III, peer mentoring or hands-on coaching – we want to hear what works, and what helps people feel ready to care well.
Telling Stories, Singing Songs - Elevating Dementia Care through Creative Arts
Bringing self-expression to engagement
Evidence suggests that creativity may increase with dementia. How are the creative arts enriching the lives of people with dementia, enhancing care and advocating throughout the community for greater awareness and compassion?
To the Very End - Upholding Personhood in Dementia Palliative Care
How can we make their last days better?
What does dying well with dementia look like from the perspectives of people with dementia, their families, and the people providing care? Are we set up across the sector to honour people with dementia at the end of their lives?
Share with us – what are you doing?
Have a story, opportunity, innovation or challenge to share that doesn’t fit in the topic selection? Tell us about it.
Ready to go?
Submit a paper
You're invited to:
- Choose a theme to submit under (or suggest one of your own)
- Write your title and a 200 word abstract
Submit an e-poster
Have an idea for an e-poster?
- Follow our guidance on how to prepare your presentation
- Presenters do not need to attend the conference in person
Support for people living with dementia and their carers
If you are a person living with dementia or a carer who would like to submit a paper or an e-poster, we are here to help.
If you would like some assistance in submitting a paper, please get in touch at conference@dementia.com.au, or chat with the team between the hours of 9am - 5pm, Monday to Friday AEST.