Australia has an ageing population with the proportion of older people aged 65 more than tripling over the last fifty years. We are working to enable a socially and economically sustainable aged care sector, and to find solutions to the complex problems that continue to characterise the sector.
Prof. Angela Dawson: Welcome to the Faculty of Health, here at the University of Technology, Sydney. We are working to enable a socially and economically sustainable aged-care sector and to find solutions to the complex problems that continue to characterise the sector.
Annie Hepworth: I'm really focused on looking at how we can improve the quality of life for older people in hospital through the prevention of delirium. And the experience for someone that has a delirium is real. Their distress is really evident and they're really quite frightened. I'm looking at it from the nurse at the bedside, seeing patients at risk and what can they do to actually prevent this significant illness occurring for their patients.
Dr. Lucinda Morris: As the global population ages, we know that many older adults in their seventies, eighties and nineties and even older, will be diagnosed with cancer. As oncologists, we know that we can and should be doing better for older adults, and often there's a degree of ageism that comes into the way that we treat older people and we make decisions based on their physiological age, not their chronological age. And that has translated into much poorer outcomes, as I say, for older people across the entire spectrum of cancer care, from quality of life to experience of treatment, and to long-term survival. So the focus of my PhD research is to ensure that the next generation of radiation oncologists receive education and training about managing older adults so that they can provide them with the best quality care possible.
Dr Tom McClean: Our involvement in the Deakin Hub has been incredibly important for us in how we introduce new technology into our aged care at the frontline. It's a remarkably difficult problem to solve in practise, even though it seems really simple in theory. And this research project has helped us to work through how we do that.
Prof. Deborah Parker: The Hub really came about with the acknowledgement of the importance of digital technologies in aged care. So every step of the way, it is a co-designed partnership with the staff at Uniting. We're talking to residents and clients, we're really trying to get that interface so that it's not a university directing the traffic as such. It's actually, "What do we want to do together to get the best outcomes for the residents and the clients in Uniting?"
Dr Tom McClean: It really has been a partnership, not just between Uniting and UTS, but between the research and the practise teams at Uniting and our frontline staff.
Prof. Deborah Parker: What we really want to get the message across is the importance of long-term established relationships between university partners and industry, and the benefits for everybody involved in that.
Annie Hepworth: The impact of my research really is being able to give nurses the skills and the confidence to be able to know that they have made a difference for an older person by preventing a significant illness. I really want to be able to empower them and be able to give them confidence that what they're doing is actually making a difference.
Dr. Lucinda Morris: My hope from this research is that one day soon, if you are an older adult with cancer and you see a radiation oncologist anywhere in the world, that radiation oncologist is highly trained in assessing you as a unique individual. They know how to work collaboratively with geriatric oncologists and allied health staff to prepare you before, during and after treatment. And I think if this can happen, we know that the outcomes for older adults with cancer will vastly improve.
Over 80% of deaths in Australia are of people aged 65 and over, with dementia now the second leading cause of death. The need for interactions with aged care services, primary care, and acute services for older people increases as they approach end-of-life.
Research on palliative and end-of-life care is critical to understanding the holistic needs of older people with dementia and other life-limiting illnesses, supporting family caregivers, addressing workforce challenges, and understanding care needs across care settings.
We have three broad programs of research focused on aged care:
- Improving palliative care for older people across care settings
- Workforce planning, education and support
- Family caregivers
Current Projects
Carers, we see you: Exploring the experiences of student carers
This project represents a collaboration between the UTS Centre for Carers Research, Centre for Social Justice and Inclusion (Equity and Diversity Unit), Carers NSW Australia and the UTS Design Innovation Research Centre (DIRC).
Research by Carers NSW reveals that carers, particularly young carers, commonly report lacking support from institutions regarding flexibility to assist them to balance their studies with their caring responsibilities.
Informed by participatory action research, the aims of the project are to better understand the experiences and challenges faced by university student carers to develop a framework of inclusive policies and practices that accommodate carer participation in higher education.
The project involves a review of current policies and practices of tertiary education institutions, interviews with university representatives and support staff, and focus groups with academic liaison officers and university students who are carers.
Funding
Centre for Carers Research, Institute of Public Policy and Governance, University of Technology Sydney
Investigators:
D Svejkar
P Gleeson
P Viswanathan
T Teague
Delirium practice change survey
Delirium treatment practice, practice change, and influencing factors: an online survey of interdisciplinary clinicians working in palliative care and other specialties
Recent high-level studies and the Delirium Clinical Care Standard signal the need to reverse the routine use of antipsychotics and other unregistered medications for delirium.
Objectives
- To investigate clinicians’ (doctor, nurse practitioner, registered nurse, pharmacist) self-reported practice and practice change since 2016 in delirium treatment in palliative care and other specialties, focused on antipsychotic use;
- Identify factors influencing delirium treatment practice according to the Theoretical Domains Framework (TDF).
Methods
- Online survey with 22 items: nine demographics; a question about frequency of encountering new patients with delirium; ten on current practice; and ten on practice change and influencers.
- Current practice items included goals of antipsychotic use for delirium. Practice influencer items included prompts about key negative studies of antipsychotics for delirium.
- Open-ended items enabled unprompted responses about other influencers and practice change characteristics.
- Recruitment via 15 professional organisations was in April-July 2019. Practice influencers were categorised using the TDF.
- Descriptive statistics were used to summarise results.
- Approach to Market: Audit of national care standards, clinical pathways and decision support tools for patients with malignant brain cancer (RFQ1819-02).
Investigators
Associate Professor Annmarie Hosie [opens external site]
Associate Professor Gideon A Caplan [opens external site]
Stephen Hedger
Professor Debra Rowett [opens external site]
Penelope Tuffin
Seong Cheah
Designing a model of intergenerational care: Connected living for older and younger Australians
This project will be the foundation for the development and evaluation of an intergenerational model of care incorporating early childhood learning and aged care services within Uniting Care’s Westmead precinct.
Specifically, the project will involve:
- scoping of existing intergenerational childhood and ageing programs within Australia and internationally to inform program design,
- co-design of the intergenerational model to be implemented at the Westmead precinct, and
- identification of an appropriate research methodology and outcomes framework to evaluate the impact of the intergenerational model.
This project is specifically designed to lead to an ARC Linkage application between UTS, Western Sydney University (WSU) and Uniting in 2022/3.
Funding
UTS Health Cross Faculty Grant
Investigator team
Professor Jo Travaglia
Associate Professor Phillipa Carnemolla
Dr Tom McClean
Digital Enhanced Living ARC Industrial Research Hub
Deakin University along with several key partner companies and organisations aims to address the challenge of an ageing population with approved funding from the Australian Research Council for the ARC Industrial Transformation Research Hub that focuses on the concept of digitally enhanced living.
The research and development activities conducted by the hub aim to develop intelligent sensed spaces within residential homes and aged care facilities. Such spaces will provide a range of proactive physical, cognitive, and social support to residents, thus increasing the quality of care provided to Australia’s ageing population.
The University of Technology Sydney joined the Hub in 2019 with industry partners, Uniting and Interrelate.
Projects undertaken in the Hub will support digital technology from children and adolescents to older Australians.
Funding
Australian Research Council (ARC)
Investigator team
Professor Jo Travaglia
Professor Fiona Brooks
Dr Tom McClean
Graeme O'Connor
End of Life Directions for Aged Care
Specialist palliative care and advance care planning advisory services
End of Life Directions for Aged Care (ELDAC) brings together three universities and five aged, palliative, and primary care national bodies to improve the care of older Australians through advance care planning activities and palliative care connections.
This aims to reduce avoidable hospital admissions, reduce the length of stays, and improve the quality of care for people supported in residential and community aged-care programs by focusing on four streams of work:
- Capacity building through access to toolkits as well as to online and phone support,
- Improved care and service provision through technology solutions,
- Better understanding of issues through policy briefings and meetings, and
- Service and sector development through local and regional partnerships.
Website
ELDAC provides information, guidance, and resources to health professionals and aged care workers to support palliative care and advance care planning to improve the care of older Australians.
Funding
Department of Health and Ageing, National Palliative Care Grants
Investigators
Professor Patsy Yates [opens external site]
Professor Jennifer Tieman [opens external site]
Palliative Care Australia [opens external site]
Leading Aged Care Services, Aged Care Services Australia
Catholic Healthcare
Australian Healthcare and Hospitals Association
Evaluation of a new service model for older adults living in regional and rural Australia
This project is a collaboration between integratedliving, a large rural and remote aged care provider, and the UTS Ageing Research Collaborative (UARC).
Integratedliving have designed a specialised inter-disciplinary new service model (Core) comprising of personal health management service for each client which incorporates risk-based needs assessment, evidence-based personal health management planning, and care cofounding:-ordination, underpinned by an integrated and systematised integrated health pathways and health coaching decision support methodology.
The Core service will comprise of a virtualised specialist hub and a distributed network of virtual and on-location health and home support services.
Core will be augmented by an integrated digital communications solution, the Core App, which includes a single interface between the client, staff, family, and the extended care team, a new generation Client Management System (CMS), and other smart assistive technologies and data analytic capacity and capability.
Funding
integratedliving
Investigators
Exploring patient and clinician perspectives on the use of wearable cardiac monitoring technology
There are many novel wearable devices available to monitor heart function in older people. Yet, there has been limited research to explore the clinical indications for use, how these could be used in healthcare, and the usability of devices from the patient perspective.
Our research will explore clinician and patient perspectives on the use of wearable cardiac monitoring technology for older adults.
A co-design approach has been used to gain perspectives into the use, application and feasibility of applying these devices in routine care.
A series of focus groups and interviews with clinicians, patients and caregivers has been completed. A usability study will be conducted to evaluate the user experience of these devices and identify areas for potential improvement.
How these devices could be implemented within everyday healthcare will be explored. Recommendations will be developed for the integration of wearable devices to monitor heart function in older people.
Funding
Investigators
Dr Caleb Ferguson [opens external site]
Professor Louise Hickman [opens external site]
Associate Professor Paul Breen [opens external site]
Professor Kate Stevens
Associate Professor Phillip Newton
Professor Peter MacDonald
Quantitative Evaluation of the Uniting Household Model
Uniting NSW/ACT has been implementing a Household Model of care across 75 residential aged-care facilities since 2015.
This study will evaluate the impact of the Household model on financial, human resource, and clinical outcomes.
The project is now updating data.
Funding
Uniting
Investigators
Professor Jo Travaglia