Few carers articulated clear strategies to deal with behavioural and psychological symptoms. For most, tolerance proved more effective and less distressing than arguments and reprimands. Carers' responses are likely to be influenced by social and cultural factors and may differ in other settings.

This paper summarises existing education and training in dementia for aged care workers in Australia. The majority of aged care workers have no formal qualifications, while those with formal qualifications are mostly from a nursing background. Only half of nursing staff have attended any dementia care training. Existing training is either service based and provided in-house or by private consultants, or tertiary institution based and provided by academics and professional educators. There is considerable in-service and one-off service-based training being provided around Australia, but few of these training exercises are linked to competency standards or staff appraisal. While there are some formal courses addressing training in dementia care available in every state of Australia, the emphasis on dementia care within generalist tertiary institution courses for aged care workers varies considerably.

This article explores how a laboratory middle school (LMS) serving students from low-performing elementary schools and students with academic or social-emotional challenges is developing as a trauma-responsive school. The authors explore the literature, school/community context, student cases, and the ways in which classroom and school-wide practices are trauma-informed. Trauma-informed practices focus on individual students as well as whole classroom and school-wide initiatives, potentially benefiting all, not only those students experiencing trauma. At LMS, a community of care system, evaluation committee, tribe and village meetings, the democratic classroom approach, project-based learning, as well as focused enrichment and remediation are all initiatives that have demonstrated some success. Documentation of such successes merits exploration in other middle schools. The LMS team seeks to understand and implement highest leverage practice as students are challenged academically, their socioemotional needs are supported, and resiliency is built not only in the classroom but also in the lives of the young adolescents themselves.