Blog: The Brain Dialogues, filtered by tag: Aged Care

HEIDI DOUGLASS | h.douglass@unsw.edu.au The South Eastern Sydney Local Health District’s Older Persons’ Mental Health Service based at Prince of Wales Hospital, in partnership with Randwick City Council, is set to hold its annual forum for the senior community on Wednesday, 25 October, with this year’s theme ‘Better Brains, Better Bodies, Better Ageing’. The free event, held from 10am to 1pm at The Juniors, Kingsford aligns with this year’s Alzheimer’s Disease International World Alzheimer’s Report message, that up to 40% of projected dementia cases could be delayed or avoided by addressing… Read More

HEIDI DOUGLASS | h.douglass@unsw.edu.au In August 1932, a baby girl given the name Annette Barbara Murphy was born in Temora, New South Wales.  At age 90, following a 10-year battle with dementia, Annette passed away peacefully at Killara Gardens Aged Care.  Annette was a Piano Teacher, a lover of the arts and was blessed with a happy, fulfilling life and an adoring life partner who was with her for 57 years.  She was admired by her four children Jennifer, Peter, Debra and Justine, and a much-loved Ma-Ma to her eight grandchildren, Elliot, Lilly, Georgina, Anna, George, Julia, Aveline and… Read More

Professor of Nursing Lynn Chenoweth is a researcher, health clinician and educator and has been researching aged care, health and aged care policy and contributing to aged care nursing education and practice since 1987. An important outcome of Professor Chenoweth’s research is the potential to influence policy decisions on how best to enable and support the health, emotional and social needs of older people – including family carers and persons living with dementia. Her hope is that her research not only provides robust evidence of the benefits of implementing safe person-centred systems of… Read More

HEIDI DOUGLASS | h.douglass@unsw.edu.au In 1945 when Australians were celebrating the end of the Second World War, a baby girl was born west of Sydney, in Granville. Her parents named her Jean.   65 years later and with three loving sons, seven grandchildren and more than 50 years of a strong and happy marriage to husband Len Nesbitt, Jean was diagnosed with vascular dementia – the second most common form of dementia after Alzheimer’s disease.  On Friday, 11 September, just over 10 years since she was first diagnosed, Jean’s family said their loving goodbyes at a beautiful memorial held… Read More

Research Assistant Lauren King hopes that through CHeBA’s COGNISANCE Project we will achieve global impact on the quality of dementia care and available support services, particularly in those countries where dementia research and support remain quite limited.   How did you get into researching the ageing brain? At university, I worked in a number of voluntary and paid research assistant roles on projects running in the experimental psychology department. I really enjoyed the systematic approach of research design and implementation whilst working on these projects.   Did you experience… Read More

This article was originally published in Montefiore LIFE magazine. In the 21st century, increases in technological advances are seen to bring a globalised world even closer. Many of Montefiore Home's residents have families scattered all over the globe and their only means of communication with them is through digital technology. However, for many elderly people these newly emerging communications tools appear to favour the younger demographic and the older generation can be left out in the cold. Luckily for them there is a new tool which has been developed specifically to reduce the… Read More

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR LEE-FAY LOW Christmas can be a stressful time for hosts and guests alike, and it’s more so for carers of people living with dementia. It’s difficult to give general advice about how to get through the holiday season with as little fuss as possible because everyone is unique, and the various types and stages of dementia affect behaviour in different ways. So I’m going to tell you a story of how one couple is getting through. Hopefully, their strategies will suggest things other families can do for a better Christmas. Tom and Nola are not real people. Their portraits… Read More

DR LEE-FAY LOW, SENIOR RESEARCH FELLOW AT THE DEMENTIA COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH CENTRE ASSESSMENT AND BETTER CARE This article was originally published as an opinion piece in The Conversation. Community-care packages have traditionally been case-managed packages of services for older people requiring residential care but wanting to stay in their home. Since July 1, all new community-care packages in Australia have become consumer directed, which means that, within an allocated budget, the older person will choose the services they want. The adage that the customer is always right presumes… Read More

HEIDI DOUGLASS | h.douglass@unsw.edu.au Historically, none of us have particularly looked forward to growing 'old'. If you ask a wide demographic to define the word 'ageing', a range of pessimistic viewpoints will filter in, such as loss of independence, burden to others, physical incapability, loneliness, hip replacements, dementia and loss of dignity. It seems that, for many people, the path to ageing appears to be a steep decline into misery. A predominant reason for this is that age catches us by surprise. We're unprepared. We've been happily going about our business of day to day life… Read More