National Centre for Healthy Ageing (NCHA)

As 2024 comes to a close, we’re taking a moment to reflect on a year of growth and great achievements for both our Centre and our community, and want to thank all who have supported us this year, including our partner organisations Monash University and Peninsula Health, our valued supporters, champions and advocates, and most importantly our incredible staff and researchers, who have worked so hard to create real and meaningful impact across so many areas.   We’re also feeling excited and energised to continue our work in 2025, so keep an eye out for the many great things coming, including: our state-of-the-art simulation facilities due in the first half of the year; our Data Platform continuing to lead the way in data delivery as they collaborate and support the wider research community; continuing to build and formally launch our Voice Australia Consumer Engagement Platform; and continuing to celebrate the impressive capabilities, knowledge and impact coming out of our Living Labs projects as they work closely with our broader community.   Whilst we have highlights aplenty, here’s a recap of just some of our 2024 highlights from our recent end of year newsletter: https://lnkd.in/gF_8t8Vz   If you would like to receive our newsletters and updates directly to your inbox, it’s easy to become an NCHA member! Sign up here: https://lnkd.in/dw6MPVxd   Wishing everyone a safe and relaxing break, and looking forward to connecting further in the new year. Velandai Srikanth Lily Chisholm Nadine Andrew Richard Beare Katrina Long Anna Mudigdo Tracy Parish Peninsula Health Monash University Monash Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences

We are excited to share that the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) have just announced the project "Transforming opioid poisoning surveillance through novel technologies" led by Dr Ting Xia of Monash Addiction Research Centre (Monash University) (MARC) has been funded!   This project involves many of our amazing National Centre for Healthy Ageing (NCHA) researchers including Prof Suzanne Nielsen and Tina Lam PhD from MARC, and will draw on our talented Healthy Ageing Data Platform team led by A/Prof Nadine Andrew and Richard Beare, as they use the technology of "natural language processing" to enable better coding of opioid involvement in ED cases.   👏 👏 Congratulations to all, and we look forward to sharing more project progress and impact in 2025! Suzanne Nielsen Tina Lam PhD Velandai Srikanth Nadine Andrew Lily Chisholm Monash University Monash Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences Peninsula Health

Congratulations Darshini Ayton and Marta Woolford, PhD! The National Centre for Healthy Ageing (NCHA) is excited and proud to have been able to support your important project, co-designing dementia education with residents in aged care and their families. 👏 👏 👏 Watch the video detailing their project here: https://lnkd.in/gi-AC73R, and read more below

I am pleased to be able to share our teams recent success in the NHMRC ideas grant scheme where we are using linked National Centre for Healthy Ageing (NCHA) Data Platform data to develop novel techniques for policy evaluation relevant to ageing. Excited to be leading a stellar team of multidisciplinary researchers to deliver this work: Taya Collyer, Richard Beare, Velandai Srikanth, Katrina Long, Jenni Ilomäki, Leonid Churilov, Monique Kilkenny, Dr Natasha Lannin, David Ung, Christina Ekegren

A new research paper from the NCHA Living Labs Program is highlighting key issues facing more than 500,000 older care leavers, sometimes referred to as “Forgotten Australians”, who are transitioning into the aged care support system. Many spent parts of their life in orphanages, children’s homes or foster care and prefer to remain at home as they age, according to the paper, “Older Care Leavers Entering the Aged Care System: A Narrative Review” https://lnkd.in/gtppG6yB published in the Journal of Gerontological Social Work https://lnkd.in/gW9UkQU9. Congratulations to National Centre for Healthy Ageing (NCHA)’s study lead Professor philip mendes and his co-authors Lena Turnbull, Sarah Morris, and Associate Professor Susan Baidawi from Monash University’s Department of Social Work for this important analysis. “Older care leavers who spent their childhoods in institutional and other forms of out-of-home care are a vulnerable group,” Professor Mendes said. “Our narrative review of existing local and international literature identified that most of this cohort prefer to remain at home, assisted by services that respect their autonomy and personal history. “Aged care services need to adopt trauma-informed approaches to meet their needs and advance their wellbeing and dignity in aged care setting.” The review also underscores the need to incorporate care leavers’ voices in research to inform policy and practice. 👉 Find out more about the NCHA-supported project Advancing healthy ageing for care leavers entering the aged care system https://lnkd.in/gvTGhScg which includes a lived experience researcher and is led by Professor Mendes. philip mendes Susan Baidawi Lena Morris Sarah Morris Velandai Srikanth Lily Chisholm  Anna Mudigdo Tracy Parish Peninsula Health Monash University Nursing and Midwifery, Monash University Steve Pearce COTA Australia

👏 👏 👏 Congratulations to our amazing team member Dr Katrina Long, Residential Aged Care Research Network (RACReN) Lead investigator, being recognised for her work on “Optimising health information exchange during inter-organisational transfers of aged care residents”.

Professor Dr Helen Rawson RN PhD MSc BSc (Hons) MACN FHEA is passionate about giving aged care residents a voice in preventing healthcare-associated infections, the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in this setting. A second-generation registered­­ nurse and Deputy Head of School, Nursing and Midwifery at Monash University, Professor Rawson who is co-leading an National Centre for Healthy Ageing (NCHA) Living Labs project, A-PRECISE, says it’s great to be co-designing infection prevention and control strategies with residents, staff, and families at The Village Baxter in Frankston and Olivet Care in Ringwood. Professor Rawson said the research team is very proud to be giving residents a voice in helping guide health solutions, and that successful collaborations are key if research outcomes are to have a positive impact on the people who its focused on. “People working in those areas know what things they want answered, know what they need to be able to support them to continue to do their work well. So, we, as researchers, must work in collaboration to ensure that we are answering relevant research questions that is supporting the residential aged care providers and relevant for them. “So, I'm really excited about our project because we’ve worked in collaboration with people working in residential aged care, and that's all levels of staff from registered nurses to people working in the kitchens, for people working in maintenance, etc. “But I am most excited about the fact that we have worked in collaboration with residents. We have got them to have a voice. We have them in our project where their voice is heard. That part of the solution, it is not being done to them. They're working with us.” Discover more about this project here https://lnkd.in/gqs4KuUe Become a member of NCHA and collaborate with us! ncha.org.au/membership Dr Helen Rawson RN PhD MSc BSc (Hons) MACN FHEA Philip Russo Karen Harris Brett Mitchell (AM) Gabrielle Brand Katrina Long Olivet Care The Village Baxter Velandai Srikanth Lily Chisholm Anna Mudigdo Tracy Parish Peninsula Health Nursing and Midwifery, Monash University Monash University Steve Pearce Nadine Andrew Australian Ageing Agenda

People accessing the healthcare journey increasingly want to be active partners in their care and have a voice in healthcare decisions. So how is a digital healthcare solution developed in Melbourne addressing that and giving a voice to patients about their needs? A National Centre for Healthy Ageing (NCHA) supported project team has developed a novel web-based tool – a digital health passport - that enables people to capture their needs and preferences once, and that information will travel with them across health services, improving the personalised nature of care they receive. This breakthrough co-designed digital intervention received very positive feedback during testing by clinicians and clinical areas at Peninsula Health and importantly 27 healthcare consumers and their support people, including those living with disability and/or complex needs. Arising from seed funding from NCHA, it’s a great example of how investment in quality research, new health tools and approaches can help deliver tangible change for consumers.   Rebecca Barnden, the Health Passport Project Lead, says the next exciting step is to explore possibilities to scale up the intervention across Victorian health services. Read more about Rebecca's project https://lnkd.in/gH3HiTeF Find out more about our Living Labs projects at ncha.org.au. Rebecca Barnden Michelle Bult Taryn Sheehy Velandai Srikanth Lily Chisholm Anna Mudigdo Tracy Parish Peninsula Health Nursing and Midwifery, Monash University Monash University Steve Pearce Jessica Mills Kylie Sprague Nadine Andrew Australian Ageing Agenda Rachel Carbonell Robyn Riley Henrietta Cook Erin Mathews Eli Dance Ali

The National Centre for Healthy Ageing (NCHA) welcomes the release of the National Dementia Action Plan 2024-2034 (https://lnkd.in/gB8sAHBN) by the Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care. The Plan provides a clear roadmap with shared accountability between Commonwealth, State/Territory/Local Governments, service providers, industry, and non-government organisations for improving the lives of people with dementia, their families and carers. There is a much needed emphasis on a human rights approach to tackle equity, inclusion, awareness and stigma associated with dementia, together with coordinated and positive actions to improve clinical and post-diagnostic care, support, training, research and monitoring of data for dementia - towards measurable outcomes relevant to the needs and preferences for people living with dementia. We look forward to working with our various partners to contribute to the delivery of these important actions. Mark Butler Anika Wells Jodie Belyea MP Kate Thwaites Peninsula Health Monash University Velandai Srikanth

Fantastic to see our team sharing their incredible work and insights at the 2024 Health Services Research Association of Australia and New Zealand (HSRAANZ) conference in Brisbane!