CARAT research

A team of allied health clinicians and researchers from the Ageing Research Group at the University of Canberra will implement and evaluate a new allied health intervention service model in a local residential aged care site.  The allied health interventions will be tailored to the specific needs of each participant as identified during individual case conferences and may include occupational therapy, physiotherapy, speech pathology, dietetics, pharmacy and optometry.

The UC research team includes: Stephen Isbel, Diane Gibson, Angie Fearon, Sam Kosari, Mark Naunton, Faran Sabeti, Jane Kellett, Nathan D'Cunha, Claire Pearce, Helen Southwood, Michelle Lincoln, Rachel Davey, Ram Subramanian  and Paresh Dawda, with colleagues Jennifer Hewitt (University of Sydney), Pip Logan & Neil Chadborn (University of Nottingham). The project is funded by a Medical Research Future Fund grant. See: project information.

The REABLE project is being done in partnership with Concentric (a Sydney based company that provides allied health services to older people). The REABLE project involves the delivery of a 12-week reablement focussed allied health service to older people living in residential aged care and in the community. Data relating to health and well-being will be collected and analysed as part of the project.

The UC research team includes Stephen Isbel, Kasia Bail, Nathan D'Cunha and Diane Gibson.

The University of Canberra in collaboration with Curtin University, Edith Cowan University and the University of Wollongong are working together to boost our professional nursing workforce to care for older people. More now than ever, there’s a need for high-quality clinical placements in aged care and related settings. This project will connect nursing students with the experience and expertise to help make a difference in the lives of older Australians.

The CPOP program, which is part of the Aged Care Nursing Clinical Placements Program, is funded by the Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care.

The Ireland Health Research Board is running a 4-year funded project  implementing the work of Prof Bail’s PhD into reporting of health data indicators for the hospital pricing authority. Older patients make up the largest proportion of acute hospital inpatient populations across all countries.

Common hospital acquired adverse events in this group contribute to higher healthcare costs, lower quality care, and less satisfactory patient experiences overall. Pneumonia, delirium, urinary tract infections and pressure injuries are four commonly acquired complications that occur in older patients, known collectively as ‘Failure to Maintain (F2M)’ events. These are nurse-sensitive patient outcomes, predominantly affected by the quality of nursing care provided. In this study, we will determine how these nurse sensitive outcomes are currently represented in routinely available national discharge (HIPE) data in Ireland.

A structured chart review will be conducted in one hospital site to validate the rates of nursing-sensitive events available in the HIPE data. The cost of these events to the Irish health service will be calculated using ICD10 data, length of stay, and other variables associated with Cost of Illness calculations. Through surveys, the human costs of missed care to both patients and caregivers will be further examined.

The overall aim of this study is to demonstrate the potential for safer hospital care and reduced healthcare costs associated with older patients in acute hospitals in Ireland through routine measurement of missed nursing care in hospitals, and sustainable and accurate reporting of nurse-sensitive adverse events using routinely collected hospital discharge data.

Building on the outcomes of the PiRACF project this next stage of work relates to implementing and scaling up the on-site pharmacist model in residential aged care into regional, rural and remote RACFs through a co-design process that develops quality indicators for resident-focused and facility level outcomes. This will lead to a refinement of the model and identification of the facilitators and barriers that impact on implementation and sustainability of the model of care.

The UC research team includes Sam Kosari, Rachel Davey, Mark Naunton, Jane Koerner, Paresh Dawda & Nasser Bagheri. This project is funded by the Medical Research Future Fund.

Over three years, this project seeks to untangle referral pathways for people with dementia in the ACT region and to co-create and evaluate a new cost-effective at-home reablement program for people with dementia and their carers. The project team includes Nathan D'Cunha, Stephen Isbel, Kasia Bail & Diane Gibson with Canberra Health Services colleague Michelle Bennett.

The project is supported by an ACT Health Research and Innovation Fellowship.

In 2021, the Commonwealth Government Department of Health funded the University of Wollongong and the University of Canberra as a Consortium to deliver the GNCs Program to new graduate and early career registered nurses working in aged care across Australia. This project implements the GNCs program for new graduate nurses working in residential aged care, providing mentorship, professional development and specialist education. The project team includes Kasia Bail and Diane Gibson (UC) in collaboration with Karen Strickland (ECU) and the University of Wollongong's Aged Dementia Health Education & Research (ADHERe) centre.

Website: Gerontological Nursing Competencies

The project aim is to develop and test a digital alert system to support staff, enhance quality of care, improve resident's health outcomes and reduce adverse events. The project will create an Aged Care Electronic Data & Information Toolkit (ACED-IT) that pulls data from multiple sources, streams data into classifications, triggers escalation pathways, ensures the right people are notified at the right time, be easy to use for aged care staff and support constructive and person focused decision-making.

The UC research team includes Kasia Bail, Diane Gibson, Stephen Isbel, Nathan D'Cunha with industry colleagues Mark Sheldon-Stemm, Arthur Shih & Desmond McGuirk. The project is funded by an Aged Care Research & Industry Innovation Australia (ARIIA) grant.

The aim of the NutriHAT-RL study is to identify nutrition-led effects associated with healthy ageing trajectories that can potentially impact onset and development of chronic disease starting with a detailed assessment of nutritional status, dietary intake and behaviours, physical function, cognitive performance and social determinants and quality of life in 2,500 individuals aged 55 years of age and over residing in the retirement villages in the ACT region.

The Chief investigators are Jane Kellett, Nenad Naumovski, Stephen Isbel & Nathan D’Cunha.

UC researchers Nathan D’Cunha, Diane Gibson, Stephen Isbel, Kasia Bail, Jane Kellett, Angie Fearon & Joe Northey in partnership Canberra Health Services, University of Canberra Hospital Specialist Centre for Rehabilitation, Recovery & Research are running a pilot 12-week evidence-based multi-component program designed for people with dementia and carers. The program includes physical activity, cognitive stimulation therapy, social engagement, nutrition assessment and carer education and capacity building. The project will assess the value of this pilot program, measuring impact and effectiveness for people with dementia and carers.

This project is partially supported by funding from the Dementia Australia Research Foundation (Hazel Hawke Research Grant 2021).