Resources and support

Finding support where you live

For help with care, ask the team looking after the person about local services for patients, families and carers. If the person also has dementia, Alzheimer’s Disease International lists dementia associations by country. These organisations may offer practical information, helplines or support groups. They are not emergency services.

The resources below are from several countries. General information may help wherever you live. Phone services and advice about getting care apply to the country shown.

Information about delirium and support for families, wherever you live.

Reading about delirium

Ask the hospital or clinic for its own delirium information and local contact details. The resources below explain delirium in plain language; advice about accessing services applies to the country shown.

• Agency for Clinical Innovation (Australia): a delirium brochure for patients and families, with translated versions.
• American Delirium Society (US): information and guidance for patients and families.
• Vanderbilt ICU Delirium (US): information for patients and families about intensive care, delirium and recovery.
• The NHS website (UK) covers delirium under the heading “sudden confusion”, including when to get urgent medical help.
• NHS inform is Scotland’s health information service. Its delirium page covers causes, treatment, recovery and how to support someone with delirium.
• There is a longer delirium page on the Royal College of Psychiatrists site (UK), including what may happen after an episode.

One booklet is useful to print. The Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network, known as SIGN, publishes a free booklet called Delirium: a booklet for people who have experienced delirium, and for their carers. It runs to about twenty pages and is based on the national clinical guideline, with short accounts from people who have had delirium themselves. Find it on the SIGN site, or search for “SIGN delirium booklet”. A paper copy is easy to hand to a relative who does not use the internet.

Support for families and caregivers

Ask local health services about support with caring, practical help and someone to talk to. If the person also has dementia, the Alzheimer’s Disease International country directory can help you find a local organisation. Some examples are listed below. These are support services, not emergency services.

For other countries, start with local health services and the country directory above. Check each organisation’s website for current contact details, opening hours and eligibility.

Free dementia training for families and carers

These online courses offer structured learning about dementia and everyday caring. They are free to use; some ask you to register.

• iSupport for dementia carers: UK versions of a World Health Organization training programme, covering dementia, everyday care, behaviour changes and looking after yourself. You can choose the topics most useful to you.
• Understanding Dementia, University of Tasmania: A free course, open worldwide, that you can take at your own pace, with four modules covering brain changes, symptoms, care and community life. Registration is required.
• The Empowered Caregiver, Alzheimer’s Association: Five free courses on caregiving, independence, communication, behaviour and support services. An account is required; information about services reflects the US setting.

Course links checked: September 2026.

Particular situations

Intensive care. This website focuses mainly on delirium in older people outside intensive care, although much of the information here is also relevant in an ICU. ICUsteps is the UK charity for intensive care patients and their relatives. Its guide to intensive care has a section for families and a separate information sheet on delirium. For more specific ICU delirium information, see Vanderbilt’s ICU Delirium information for patients and families, which covers delirium in intensive care, ventilators, how families can help, and recovery afterwards.

Children and young people. This website does not cover delirium in babies, children or young people. Leicester’s Hospitals has a short NHS leaflet for parents and carers, Understanding delirium in children during and after hospital care. Vanderbilt also has information about delirium and recovery in children’s intensive care.

The end of life. Marie Curie is a UK charity with information about delirium when someone has a terminal illness and support for people affected by terminal illness. If the person has an agreed palliative care plan, contact their palliative care, hospice or primary care team urgently and follow that plan. Priorities and treatments may differ at the end of life.

Other languages. Dementia United, an NHS programme in Greater Manchester, has translated its short delirium leaflet into sixteen languages, with audio versions and short films. ICUsteps publishes translated intensive care information too. These translations may help anywhere, although service details may be specific to the UK.

Practical help for you

If you are looking after someone during or after delirium, you are a carer or caregiver, whether or not you use either word about yourself. Ask local health or social care services about practical help, respite and support for your own wellbeing.

What these can and can’t do

Every website and helpline on this page has the same limit: they give general information. None of them can tell you what is wrong with your mother, whether her medicines are right, or when she will recover. Advice about an individual person can only come from clinicians who can examine them and take responsibility for the plan.

While your loved one is in hospital, that means the team caring for them. Ask to speak to the nurse in charge (charge nurse), or the doctor responsible for their care. After discharge, it means their own doctor. Delirium should be mentioned in the hospital discharge letter. Ask for a review after an episode, even when nothing seems wrong. For a sudden new change at home, get medical help now. Outside a care setting, call local emergency services now. In a hospital, care home or nursing home, tell staff immediately and describe the change from normal. If the person is hard to wake or very unwell, call local emergency services immediately.

When you do get time with the team, some questions tend to produce useful answers:

• Is there a plan for the delirium, and can you talk me through it?
• Have the possible triggers been reviewed: infection, pain, constipation, dehydration, medication side effects?
• Has anyone been through the medication list for drugs that can worsen confusion?
• What is being done about sleep, eating and drinking, glasses and hearing aids, and getting moving again?
• Who is coordinating all of this, and how do I reach them?

Judging what you find online

A few habits protect you. Check who runs the site: health services and established charities are accountable for what they publish, and anonymous pages and supplement sellers are not. Check the date, because advice on delirium has changed over the years. Treat forums as what they are, other families’ experiences rather than advice for yours.

Many people now ask AI chatbots medical questions. The answers sound confident and are sometimes wrong, and the tool has no way of examining your relative or noticing its own mistakes. If you use one, use it to help you understand unfamiliar terms, and check anything important against the sites on this page.

For health professionals and students

See For staff for editable family handouts and a short list of clinical guidance, assessment and measurement resources. For a structured directory of delirium detection, monitoring, severity, risk and research instruments, see Delirium Tools. It is intended for finding and comparing tools, not for choosing an instrument for an individual patient without the relevant training and local guidance.

Printable guides from this site