Dementia Care

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32 Australian Journal of Dementia Care October/November 2016 Vol 5 No 5
Expanding the frontiers of discovery
I n 2015, the Dementia Collaborative
Research Centres (DCRCs) became a
member organisation of the newly
established NHMRC National Institute
for Dementia Research (NNIDR).
Marking this evolution in Australian
dementia research, in 2016 the DCRCs
issued their first national open call for
funding applications that addressed
priority areas for the NNIDR. Aunique
element of this national scheme was that
proposals to the DCRCs had to ensure a
focus on knowledge translation.
The DCRCs received 208 proposals
from teams Australia-wide: nearly 10
times more applications than could be
funded. After a comprehensive NHMRC-
style assessment process involving almost
30 expert researchers, the DCRCs
awarded over $2.3 million to 26 new
research projects. They covered a
spectrum of topics from prevention and
assessment to treatment and care. Grant
sizes ranged from $38,000 (to study how
the neighbourhood environment
influences brain and cognitive health in
older adults), up to $200,000 (to determine
social and biomedical risk factors for
dementia inAboriginal Australians).
The full list of grant recipients is
available on the DCRC website at
. Below are
just three examples of novel projects that
have received one of the DCRC Dementia
Research Grants and involve DCRC
collaborators.
DCRC SPEC I AL I SSUE : THE B I G P I CTURE I N DEMENT I A RESEARCH
An eLearning resource high-
lighting additional considerations
for those managing behavioural
and psychological symptoms of
dementia (BPSD) in lesbian, gay,
bisexual, transgender and intersex
(LGBTI) people (award: $50,000)
Lead: Kim Burns
(UNSW)
Team: Prof Henry
Brodaty, UNSW;
Dr Ranmalie Jayasinha,
UNSW
In all care contexts, LGBTI people with
dementia may need more support.
This requires service providers to be
better informed about additional
considerations for managing BPSD in
this group.
This project will develop, implement
and evaluate a web-based eLearning
resource for care staff and health
professionals.
It will develop materials using
evidence- and practice-based
principles in the document Behaviour
management, a guide to good
practice, managing behavioural and
psychological symptoms of dementia
and associated resources developed
by the BPSD team at DCRC:ABC.
It will complement the existing
eLearning resource Caring for LGBTI
people with dementia developed by
the SA/NT Dementia Training Study
Centre. The eLearning resource will be
disseminated via two webinars, a
targeted media launch and an email
campaign.
Evaluations will include online
feedback within the eLearning
resource and follow-up phone
interviews to assess the value of the
resource for care providers.
What is ‘a good day out’? Working towards optimal day centre respite care and
ways to measure it (award: $75,738)
Lead: Dr Elaine Fielding Queensland University of Technology (QUT)
Team: Prof Elizabeth Beattie, QUT; Prof Richard Fleming, University of
Wollongong; A/Prof Belinda Goodenough, University of Wollongong; Dr
Margaret MacAndrew, QUT; A/Prof Christine Neville, Queensland University;
Dr Maria O’Reilly, QUT; A/Prof Christine Stirling, University of Tasmania
In Australia, day respite services are government-funded care-package choices for people
with dementia living in the community. Yet these services are largely unregulated. No
dementia-relevant benchmarks exist for staff skills, training, activities, care quality, or physical
environment. This puts responsibility on consumers to locate, assess and compare services.
To date, Australian respite research has focused on consumers’ subjective service
experiences/needs. There has been little attention either to the experiences of providers or
to objective direct investigation of potentially sub optimal care. Our project uses both applied
research and knowledge translation lenses to fill these gaps in two ways:
• Collecting data about what actually occurs in day respite services by direct observation
and from four viewpoints: managers, staff, people with dementia and family carers.
• Compiling a toolkit designed to assess day respite care quality and environment for
‘dementia-friendliness’.
The research team believes day respite providers want to deliver best possible care –
but may lack relevant dementia-specific attitudes, knowledge, skills, tools and training.
This project will provide an essential tool for services to move towards optimal care and
provide ‘a good day out’ every day.
Preparing carers of people with dementia living in the community for natural
disasters: developing a guide for carers – The Carer Ready Guide (CaRed Guide)
(award: $69,345)
Lead: Dr Linda Schnitker Queensland University of Technology (QUT)
Team: Dr Elaine Fielding, QUT; Dr Margaret MacAndrew, QUT; Prof
Vivienne Tippett, QUT; Prof Gerry Fitzgerald, QUT; Dr David Lie, Qld Health;
Prof Lisa Brown, Palo Alto University, US; Prof Elizabeth Beattie, QUT
Australia experiences a range of natural disasters, such as floods, bush
fires, and severe storms. Impaired cognition limits coping ability. To stay safe, people
with dementia living in the community rely heavily on their carers and emergency
services. During these events, people with dementia will have special needs – for
identification (eg photos, identification bracelet if the person gets lost), prevention of
wandering, appropriate communication skills from helpers (eg to help them remain
calm), and accessible medical records if nursing or medical care is required. To meet
these needs, carers should develop suitable emergency plans in advance. To our
knowledge there are no Australian resources to help the carer of a community-dwelling
person with dementia optimally prepare for natural disasters. Our project addresses this
gap by systematically developing an evidence-based guide that supports the disaster
preparedness of this vulnerable population – The carer ready guide (CaRed Guide).