Course curriculum

    1. Course Introduction

    2. Learning Intentions

    1. Safety Often Enters Quietly

    2. How the Diagnosis Changes the Weight of These Moments

    3. The Questions That Begin to Surface

    4. Why This Feels So Emotionally Loaded

    5. Holding Off on Quick Conclusions

    6. A Brief Pause

    1. Why Risk Can’t Be Removed Completely

    2. When Safety Advice Feels Absolute

    3. The Difference Between Risk and Harm

    4. Why Eliminating Risk Often Backfires

    5. Reducing Harm Looks Different

    6. Why Families Struggle With This Balance

    7. A Brief Pause

    1. Why Safety Decisions Feel Different From Other Decisions

    2. Moving Away From Single-Question Thinking

    3. Four Things Families Are Often Weighing (Even If They Don’t Name Them)

    4. Why This Way of Thinking Helps

    5. This Isn’t a Formula

    6. Why This Matters Before Looking at Examples

    7. A Brief Pause

    1. Safety Usually Shows Up in Ordinary Situations

    2. 1) Moving Around and Getting About

    3. 2) Driving and Getting From Place to Place

    4. 3) Money, Decisions, and Vulnerability

    5. 4) Being Alone and Being With Others

    6. Why These Decisions Rarely Feel Finished

    7. A Brief Pause

    8. Balancing Care and Risk

    1. Not a test — it's a way to practise the thinking!

About this course

  • $24.95
  • 46 lessons
  • 0 hours of video content
  • Format: Self-paced, on-demand
  • Length: Approximately 30–45 minutes
  • Plain-language slides with short audio reflections

Discover your potential, starting today

Enroll today

Course Overview

As dementia progresses, safety questions tend to come closer to the centre of everyday life.

For many families, these concerns don’t arrive as dramatic incidents. They build quietly — a wobble on the stairs, uncertainty about driving, confusion with money, a moment of vulnerability, a growing sense that “we can’t ignore this forever.”

And with that comes a real tension:

  • You want to reduce harm.
  • You also want to protect dignity, independence, and trust.


This on-demand course is designed to help families navigate that tension in a steadier way.

It doesn’t offer rules or checklists.

It offers a person-centred way of thinking about safety decisions — so you can act practically without defaulting to control, conflict, or unnecessary loss of personhood.

Who This Course Is For

This course is designed for:

  • Family members supporting a person living with dementia
  • Especially those supporting someone primarily at home, but relevant across care settings
  • Families facing new safety concerns, increased risk, or transitions in support
  • Anyone feeling torn between “being responsible” and “not taking over”

You don’t need special knowledge to start. This course is grounded in everyday family life.

What you’ll gain from this course

By the end of the course, you may feel:

  • Clearer about why safety decisions can feel so emotionally loaded
  • More able to distinguish reducing harm from trying to eliminate all risk
  • More confident thinking through difficult dilemmas where there’s no perfect answer
  • Better able to protect autonomy, dignity, and identity while increasing safety
  • More prepared to explain decisions to family members or professionals without losing the person in the process


This course won’t remove uncertainty — but it can make decisions feel less rushed and less isolating.

What the course covers

In this course, we explore:

  • Why safety concerns often have a “backstory” by the time a diagnosis is named
  • How safety decisions become tied to guilt, fear, responsibility, and relationship roles
  • The difference between risk and harm — and why trying to remove all risk often backfires
  • A person-centred way of thinking that holds risk, identity, everyday life, and relationships together
  • How to talk about safety decisions in ways that protect trust and dignity


We'll look at common, real-life areas where safety dilemmas arise, including:

  • mobility and falls
  • driving and getting from place to place
  • money, decision-making, and vulnerability
  • being alone, being with others, and privacy


You’ll also practise the thinking through short, recognisable scenarios (no trick questions — just real-life rehearsal).

What makes this course different

Many existing resources focus on safety through:

  • risk elimination
  • safeguarding rules
  • legal or compliance language
  • topic-by-topic guidance


Those resources can be helpful — but they rarely support families with the hardest part:

  • How to think when there is no clear right answer.
  • This course helps you hold the question differently:
  • Not only: “How do we make this safe?”
  • But also: “How do we reduce harm while preserving who this person is?”


A supportive human voice

You’ll hear short audio reflections from Daphne Noonan, Co-Founder of Person Centred Universe.

These reflections are designed to:

  • slow the urgency that often surrounds safety decisions
  • help you feel less alone in the tension
  • reinforce a person-centred way of thinking when emotions are high
  • support clarity without judgement


Practical take-home resource

This course includes a downloadable guide, Balancing Autonomy and Safety: A Practical Guide for Thinking Through Real-Life Decisions. It’s designed to help you:

  • work through common safety dilemmas step-by-step
  • revisit decisions as circumstances change
  • explain your thinking to family members and professionals
  • reduce harm without losing the person

It’s not a checklist.

It’s something you can return to when safety moves from the background into focus.

A gentle close

Safety decisions are rarely perfect.

They’re often “least bad” choices made with care.

This course offers a steadier way to think — so practical action can sit alongside dignity, identity, and relationship.