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26 Australian Journal of Dementia Care December 2016/January 2017 Vol 5 No 6
2016) and were better able to support
health professionals to influence and
implement sustainable practice change.
This was achieved by providing training
and education that was closely aligned
with Government and health sector
priorities and needs, with a more intense
focus on the KT framework. This included
getting feedback from the dementia care
workforce on the training support it
needed.
Collaboration and partnerships
The National Health andMedical
Council’s National Institute for Dementia
Research (NNIDR) was established in 2014.
The DTSCs quickly sought to work with
NNIDRmember organisations (eg DCRCs)
to help disseminate ‘KT ready’ research
findings in workforce education. Akey
partnership commenced between the KT
programs of the DTSCs and the DCRCs:
sharing staff, resources and technologies
(eg a videoconferencing platform). In
collaboration with the DBMAS, the KT
program focus shifted to capacity building,
eg how to help health professionals lead
evidence-based change.
Now a leader in KT-orientated
education, the DTSCs opened a national
conversation by bringing together
dementia researchers, educators, aged and
health care provider organisations and
Government representatives inMarch 2015
for a round table discussion on ‘KT in
Dementia Care’. This set the stage for the
first DTSC/DCRC co-hosted forum in
Australia on Dementia Research and KT, in
September 2015.
The DTSCs continued to expand their
services, aided by rapid developments in
telecommunications which made it
possible to deliver training to more people
in more places aroundAustralia. This
included state-based and national
webinars, and the development of an e-
learning platform to support online
courses. In line with the KT vision, new
resources, such as toolkits to guide
implementation and train-the-trainer
packages, were developed and the
Environmental Design Education Service
and Fellowship programs were greatly
expanded.
DTSC activities were now being
evaluated not just on the amount and type
of training delivered, but also in terms of
outcomes and effectiveness. AKT Impact
evaluation tool was developed
(Goodenough et al 2016). This enabled the
centres to evaluate the degree to which an
activity met its KT objective and whether
practice change had indeed occurred as a
result of their training.
In their final two years of operation, the
DTSCs offered a broad range of training
activities spanning the KT spectrum, from
those aimed at raising awareness of the
knowledge through to supporting
organisations to implement and sustain
that knowledge in practice (see graph,
previous page).
A changing landscape
The DTSCs began as a training delivery
programwith the aim of presenting
knowledge to health professionals. Over
the course of 10 years they matured from a
number of disparate centres delivering
dementia training into a cohesive national
program truly focused on increasing the
knowledge and skills of health
professionals and facilitating the delivery
of current evidence-based care for people
with dementia.
This landmark achievement was a result
of the dedication and enthusiasm of all
those involved throughout the past decade.
I cannot therefore end this reflection on the
DTSC journey without acknowledging the
many people, staff, host organisations and
the funding body, all of whom contributed
greatly to the centres’ development and
growth.
There have been several changes in
centre directors over the 10 years and I
acknowledge and thank each one of them
for having the vision to see what the
DTSCs could be and the courage to take
the centres on what has been an
adventurous andmagnificent journey.
The journey however is far from over
and the transition to the national dementia
training program is another milestone
along the way. The ground-breaking work
done by the DTSCs has forged the path for
dementia training and KT inAustralia and
it is with great pride, on behalf of all those
involved in the DTSCs, that I hand over to
DTAto continue the journey and shape the
future of dementia training inAustralia.
References
Goodenough B, Fleming R, Young M, Burns K,
Jones C, Forbes F (2016) Raising awareness of
research evidence among health professionals
delivering dementia care: are knowledge
translation workshops useful? Gerontology and
Geriatrics Education eprint October 24. DOI:
10.1080/02701960.2016.1247064.
Phillipson L, Fleming R, Beattie E, Winbolt M, Reis
S (2014) Development of an evidence-based
framework to support knowledge translation
within the Australian Dementia Training and Study
Program. Australian Journal of Dementia Care3(5)
32.
Dr Margaret Winbolt is a Dementia Training
Australia Director and Senior Research Fellow in
the Australian Centre for Evidence Based Aged
Care, La Trobe University, Melbourne. Margaret
was previously the Director of the Victoria and
Tasmania DTSC and Chair of the DTSC National
Leadership Group. Contact Margaret at:
Professor Richard
Fleming, Executive
Director of Dementia
Training Australia,
introduces the new
consortium responsible for
training Australia’s aged,
health and community care
workforce
In April 2016 the Department of Health
released a call for tenders for the
development and operation of
Australia’s new Dementia Training
Program to replace the five Dementia
Training Study Centres (DTSCs) and the
state-based Dementia Care Essentials
(DCE) programs.
The aim of the new Dementia Training
Program was, and is, to provide
dementia-specific training to aged care,
health care, and community providers
and their staff in order to improve the
care and well-being of people with
dementia.
Tender applicants were required to
describe how the new organisation they
would form to implement this program
would:
• Improve the care and well-being of
people with dementia through up-
skilling the aged care, health care and
community care workforce involved in
their care.
• Facilitate knowledge translation by
providing training which is based on
current best evidence.
• Deliver dementia-specific training
appropriate to the needs of the client
and through a variety of mechanisms
to achieve equitable access across
geographic regions.
The tender documentation specifically
called for the provision of:
• Continuing Professional Development
(CPD) training on dementia
assessment, diagnosis and
management to GPs, nurses,
pharmacists, psychologists, medical
specialists, allied health and other
relevant professionals as appropriate.
• Vocational level dementia training for
personal care workers.
• An online training portal to allow staff
to undertake web-based training.
• Tailored onsite training to aged care
providers who request assistance,
including a dementia skills and
environment audit, followed by a
tailored training package.