When the murky and fast-flowing water surged into their house in northern Victoria, Brian and Glenys Mulcahey were determined. They would save their home of more than 50 years.

In the end, they couldn’t. But what they didn’t know then, during that devastating flood in 2022, was that the worst was still to come.

For Brian Mulcahey was never the same again; the previously active man slid into a state of listlessness, and was later sent to a mental health facility.

Today, regional editor Benjamin Preiss on the link between dementia and natural disasters.