Over 400,000 people are living with dementia in Australia, and despite being a high-income country, services available to promote quality of life and wellbeing are limited. Cognitive Stimulation Therapy (CST) is a short-term, evidence-based intervention for people with mild to moderate dementia that uses structured activities to improve thinking skills, mood, and quality of life. CST is delivered in healthcare settings internationally, including in countries with comparable health systems to Australia, such as the United Kingdom and Denmark. Despite this, there has been limited adoption of CST in Australia until recently. The first documented Australian adaptation of CST was in 2013 at a hospital in Sydney. Since then, several residential aged care providers have incorporated principles of CST into their recreation and therapeutic programs, however community programs of CST are rare. With approximately 70% of Australians with dementia living in the community, community health services are ideally placed to provide CST.

Holstep Health Memory and Dementia Service is a community health centre in metropolitan, Melbourne. Holstep Health has been running CST groups since 2023 led by occupational therapists and a leisure therapist. Understanding how evidence-based interventions can be successfully translated and implemented in different contexts is critical to sustainability of these types of programs. This presentation will share the implementing of CST into practice where the program has become sustainable and ‘business as usual’. The challenges, achievements and lessons learnt will be shared in the hope to inspire other occupational therapists to implement and establish CST within their workplace.