APRIL 2020
MESSAGE FROM THE DIRECTOR
Welcome to the April 2020 edition of our newsletter. This newsletter highlights some of the excellent research and achievements that JRC staff and students have accomplished since November 2019.
Aged care has been in the spotlight since 2019 with the Royal Aged Care Commission on Safety and Quality in Aged Care. At the hearings, many older people, families, service providers, and the wider community shared stories about gaps in aged care provision. Associate Professor Sue Hodgkin and Dr Rachel Winterton gave evidence as expert witnesses. I was also interviewed by the Royal Commission team about our rural aged care research.
We welcome new staff members to our team, Dr Rebecca McKechnie, Caitlin Silvester and Kim Young, together with new Masters student Craig Gilbertson. We farewelled Dr Samantha Clune, Dr Marita Chisholm and Dr Ainsley Robinson.
It has certainly been tumultuous start to the year with the bushfires and Covid-19. Our staff and students have transitioned well to #WFH (working from home). We continue our #BAU (business as usual) using technology (see picture above) despite these unprecedented events and restrictions. La Trobe University’s culture of Connected, Care, Innovative and Accountable becomes even more relevant in guiding us to support each other as a team and others in our communities.
Hope you all stay safe and enjoy life simple pleasures during your Easter break!
Staff News
In November 2019, Dr Rachel Winterton was summoned as an expert witness to the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety. Rachel gave evidence at the Mudgee Hearing, which focused on provision of aged care in regional areas. Rachel spoke about access and equity in rural aged care, using her research about the rural volunteer workforce and work she has completed as the convener of the Australian Association of Gerontology Regional, Rural and Remote Special Interest Group. Rachel’s testimony was quoted in The Australian and broadcast by ABC’s Radio National.
Welcome new staff
Two research officers join JRC
Kim Young
Kim recently graduated with a La Trobe University Bachelor of Human Science/Master of Social Work. Kim’s passion is to work with older people and to learn more about addressing their needs. Kim is based at Albury-Wodonga campus.
Dr Rebecca McKechnie
Rebecca has worked in research for 12 years. Previously, Rebecca’s research has focused on food security, socioeconomic inequalities in health, and scale and measurement development. Rebecca is based at Bendigo campus.
As the Virtual Dementia Friendly Rural Communities (Verily) project draws to a close, Dr Clare Wilding has been presenting findings from the study, for example to ABC Central Victoria. The Verily project involved 12 rural communities across Victoria, New South Wales, and South Australia. It was a trial of a website and mobile application that aimed to improve support and access to tailored information for people who are caring for someone living with dementia or memory loss. You can find out more about the project at: www.verilyconnect.org.au
Student News
Masters student, He Fan, together with supervisors Professor Irene Blackberry and Dr George Mnatzaganian, visited Kunming Hospital in China to discuss research collaboration and data extraction. Fan’s research is about investigating the association between rehabilitation programs, patient characteristics and one-year mortality in patients diagnosed with acute ischemic disease in Yunnan province, China.
PhD student, Monica Jones, conducted a focus group with care workers employed in rural aged care residential facilities. During the group meeting, the workers discussed their work demands, job resources, personal resources, and the rewards of working with older people. The next stage of Monica’s mixed-method sequential study is to conduct a prospective quantitative study to examine the relationship between the workplace characteristics, preclinical indicators of ill-health, and employee turnover.
Supervisors: Associate Professor Sue Hodgkin and Dr Brad Wright.
PhD student, Jozette Dellemain, is working towards completion of her studies. In February, she presented an overview of her research, titled “Putting ‘rural’ into rural case management”. Jozette discovered that there is a lack of understanding about rural case management practice, particularly in an Australian context. Jozette’s study used a two-stage exploratory sequential mixed method approach to develop an adapted case management practice theory.
Supervisors: Associate Professor Sue Hodgkin and Dr Heather Downey.
RECENT EVENTS
Collaboration session: John Richards Centre and U3A
The JRC and the University of the Third Age (U3A) Albury-Wodonga hosted an interactive session featuring Mr David Kidd, Director of Partnerships, North East Health Wangaratta, during Seniors Week Wodonga 2019.
David shared his experience of visiting hospitals and service innovation experts in the USA during his 2019 Churchill Fellowship trip that took him across North America. David outlined key learnings from Age-Friendly Health System models of care and discussed how these models could be applied to rural Australia.
The event was well attended by community members and local health care providers who were interested in rural ageing and aged care research that makes a difference to the lives of older people living in rural communities. After David’s presentation, Dr Clare Wilding facilitated discussion with community members who were interested to be involved further in our research. More opportunities for community members to meet with JRC staff are planned.
India visit
Dr Tshepo Rasekaba and Professor Irene Blackberry visited the rural city of Mysuru, India, to conduct fieldwork as part of a collaborative project with the JRC and JSS (Jagadguru Sri Shivarathreeshwara) Academy of Higher Education and Research and JSS Hospital. During the visit, the team conducted surveys, focus groups, and a community forum about digital and health literacy. The project, Digital and Health Literacy Among Older People in Rural India (DAHLIA), was a La Trobe Asia Research Program funded activity. Irene and Tshepo hope that the DAHLIA project marks the beginning of an enduring collaboration between the JRC and JSS AHER and JSS Hospital. Irene and Tshepo also visited JSS Free Residential School (picture above right), situated in Suttur, a small village outside Mysuru, which houses 4,500 poor and orphaned children. The school is part of the social community program that JSS group are engaged in. The JSS group aims to provide access to education irrespective of the children’s backgrounds and is founded on the belief that “social change is possible through education”.
Equity Trustee visit
On Monday 16 December, we had a visit from Jodi Kennedy and Paul Tsakmakis from Equity Trustees, together with Stephen May and Carl Junot from the Alumni and Advancement Office and John Richards. Equity Trustees (eqt.com.au) manage tailored investment portfolios for corporate, charitable and private clients, including the benefactor of the JRC, Mr John Richards OAM. The meeting was an opportunity to hear more about the work funded by Equity Trustees and to showcase the work of the JRC. Both organisations are interested in learning more about social and health impacts on contemporary older Australians.
Current Projects
EMPOWERING OLDER PEOPLE IN ACCESSING AGED CARE SERVICES IN A CONSUMER MARKET
Changes to the way that community aged care services are provided to older people may be disadvantageous to rural people. This research is being undertaken to identify the barriers and facilitators that older rural people experience when accessing, assessing, and acting on information and making choices about services. The study includes in-depth interviews with rural older people to identify priorities for better supporting older persons’ decision-making.
DEFINING SCOPE OF VOLUNTEER PRACTICE WITHIN HEALTH AND AGED CARE SERVICES
This project identifies how volunteers can be managed and supported more effectively within health organisations in Victoria. Volunteers play a key role in providing care within health and aged care services, as a consequence of continued resource constraints within the health system. The scope of health volunteering is changing.
Currently there is no existing capability or best-practice framework specific to volunteering in health organisations, either in Australia or internationally.
LET'S CHAT - (Community Health Approaches To) DEMENTIA IN INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES
Documented rates of dementia and cognitive impairment not dementia (CIND) in older Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples is 3-5 times higher than the rest of the population, and current evidence suggests this condition is under-diagnosed and under-managed in a clinical primary care setting. This study aims to implement and evaluate a culturally responsive best practice model of care to optimise the detection and management of people with cognitive impairment and/or dementia, and to improve the quality of life of carers and older Aboriginal and Torres Islander Peoples with cognitive impairment.
Recent Publications
Furler, J., O'Neal, D., Speight, J., Blackberry, I., Manski-Nankervis, J. A., Thuraisingam, S., de La Rue, K., Ginnivan, L., Doyle, R., Holmes-Truscott, E., Khunti, K., Dalziel, K., Chiang, J., Audehm, R., Kennedy, M., Clark, M., Jenkins, A., Lake, A. J., Januszewski, A. S., Catchpool, M., Liew, D., Clarke, P. & Best, J. (2020). Use of professional-mode flash glucose monitoring, at 3-month intervals, in adults with type 2 diabetes in general practice (GP-OSMOTIC): a pragmatic, open-label, 12-month, randomised controlled trial. Lancet Diabetes Endocrinol, 8(1), 17-26.
Savy, P., Hodgkin, S., Long, K., Melis, R., Lewis, V., Furler, J., Kwang, L. Dow, B. & Blackberry, I. Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment programs: possibilities, realities and outcomes: Evaluation. Journal of Australasia. 19(3), 115-133.
Hancock, S., Winterton, R., Wilding, C. and Blackberry, I. Understanding ageing well in Australian rural and regional settings: Applying an age-friendly lens. The Australian Journal of Rural Health. 27, 298–303.
Be involved in our research
Do you have any ideas or suggestions for research? Please contact us.
Phone: (02) 6024 9718
Email: jrc@latrobe.edu.au
READ MORE ABOUT JOHN RICHARDS CENTRE FOR RURAL AGEING RESEARCH >
