A Model of Integrated Care for Dependant Older People Living in the Community. This research offers significant economic, health and social benefits. Promoting and maintaining good health and ageing well, ageing productively are national priority areas. Case management and telemedicine are both recognised strategies to support chronic disease self-management. Early intervention can offer significant benefits in morbidity and mortality. Enhanced service delivery using an integrated model encompas ....A Model of Integrated Care for Dependant Older People Living in the Community. This research offers significant economic, health and social benefits. Promoting and maintaining good health and ageing well, ageing productively are national priority areas. Case management and telemedicine are both recognised strategies to support chronic disease self-management. Early intervention can offer significant benefits in morbidity and mortality. Enhanced service delivery using an integrated model encompassing general practitioners, practice nurses and community carers, could improve chronic and complex disease management and reduce health costs.Read moreRead less
Primary Care Prevention Of Falls And Fractures In The Elderly By Annual Vitamin D Supplementation
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$305,750.00
Summary
While Australia has one of the highest rates of skin cancer, many of us are not receiving enough sun exposure to adequately maintain necessary blood levels of vitamin D. For years it was assumed that vitamin D deficiency was rarely seen in Australia where sunlight abounds for most of the year. Although few foods are high in vitamin D, it was thought that only certain cultural groups where women are always veiled in public, very dark-skinned people and the housebound elderly, were at risk of vita ....While Australia has one of the highest rates of skin cancer, many of us are not receiving enough sun exposure to adequately maintain necessary blood levels of vitamin D. For years it was assumed that vitamin D deficiency was rarely seen in Australia where sunlight abounds for most of the year. Although few foods are high in vitamin D, it was thought that only certain cultural groups where women are always veiled in public, very dark-skinned people and the housebound elderly, were at risk of vitamin D deficiency. Lower vitamin D levels following wintertime have now been reported in many populations including those living near the Mediterranean and in Geelong, Victoria. Vitamin D insufficiency is associated with an increased risk of falling through increased body sway and muscle weakness. Low levels of the vitamin also encourage the removal of calcium from bones and will predispose to bone fracture for two reasons - increased likelihood of falling and increased bone fragility and osteoporosis. Osteoporotic fractures are amongst the most important causes of ill-health among elderly people, causing an estimated 65,000 fractures in 2000-01. If nothing is done, fracture rates are estimated to increase from one every 8.1 minutes in 2001, to one every 3.7 minutes in 2021. Falls among the elderly are also a major health with about a third of people over 70years falling at least once every year. Almost 90% of all hip fractures result from the impact of a fall. This project will trial an annual dose of vitamin D to the elderly at high risk of vitamin D deficiency, falls and fractures. Fifteen hundred women will be supplemented with either vitamin D or a placebo dummy pill at the beginning of winter for five years. The supplementation will take place through their local doctor and researchers will expect to see fewer falls and bone fractures occurring in those receiving vitamin D than in the group receiving the placebo.Read moreRead less
Improving the physical and oral health of people with severe mental illness: using Normalisation Process Theory to support new practices. The physical health of people with severe mental illness is extremely poor, often due to inadequate attention to their health needs by health professionals in primary care and the public mental health system. This project will focus on how practices can be changed to improve the health of this population and increase their access to preventative healthcare.
Enhancing health literacy to optimise health equality across Victorian communities. Health literacy—the ability to seek, understand and use health information—is a major influence on equitable health outcomes for Australians. This project will take a fresh approach to health literacy to understand vulnerable members of our community and develop supports and interventions that aim to assist services to reduce health inequalities.
A randomised controlled trial assessing the effects of a school-based sleep intervention in Year 6 and 7 students. Inadequate sleep is associated with a wide range of health problems in children, including obesity and poor performance at school. Children are sleeping less than ever before, and there is an increasing pattern of “yo yo sleeping” (sleep deprivation on school days followed by catch up sleeps on weekends). This study will trial a school-based program designed to improve the sleeping ....A randomised controlled trial assessing the effects of a school-based sleep intervention in Year 6 and 7 students. Inadequate sleep is associated with a wide range of health problems in children, including obesity and poor performance at school. Children are sleeping less than ever before, and there is an increasing pattern of “yo yo sleeping” (sleep deprivation on school days followed by catch up sleeps on weekends). This study will trial a school-based program designed to improve the sleeping habits of children. Better sleep is expected to result in improved alertness, better life satisfaction, and improved weight status.Read moreRead less
Special Research Initiatives - Grant ID: SR0354827
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$10,000.00
Summary
HEALTHY AGEING - PREVENTION AND INTERVENTION (HA-PI) NETWORK:
A RESEARCH NETWORK PROPOSAL ON THE BIOLOGICAL, SOCIAL AND PRIMARY CARE DYNAMICS OF AGEING
. Australian ageing research is dispersed across bioscience, social science and primary care organisations. Advances in healthy, productive ageing require connection of these three vital links. Bioscience and social science groupings are engaged in generating the evidence that primary care experts need to promote healthy ageing. Primary ....HEALTHY AGEING - PREVENTION AND INTERVENTION (HA-PI) NETWORK:
A RESEARCH NETWORK PROPOSAL ON THE BIOLOGICAL, SOCIAL AND PRIMARY CARE DYNAMICS OF AGEING
. Australian ageing research is dispersed across bioscience, social science and primary care organisations. Advances in healthy, productive ageing require connection of these three vital links. Bioscience and social science groupings are engaged in generating the evidence that primary care experts need to promote healthy ageing. Primary care experts also need to act as ?direction finders? for research on ageing so that the right questions are addressed. All these groups are relatively under-funded and poorly connected. The HA-PI Network will connect and support them to over-come barriers to the implementation of existing research and to create innovations for the future.Read moreRead less
Retirement activity planning: a randomised controlled trial. Retirement is a life transition where people must rethink the way they use their time, but little thought is given to planning for this. This project will assess the effect of systematic pre-retirement activity planning on use of time after retirement, with an emphasis on physical activity and sedentary behaviours.
Improving health and lifestyle of indigenous Australians in the Western Desert. This program aims to develop knowledge, skills and attitudes, whilst providing a supportive environment, to better the health of the Martu people though the provision of activities and services and strengthening of partnerships between service agencies and the local community. By developing the Indigenous workforce and building the community capacity to self-manage health, a reduction in the discrepancy in health ind ....Improving health and lifestyle of indigenous Australians in the Western Desert. This program aims to develop knowledge, skills and attitudes, whilst providing a supportive environment, to better the health of the Martu people though the provision of activities and services and strengthening of partnerships between service agencies and the local community. By developing the Indigenous workforce and building the community capacity to self-manage health, a reduction in the discrepancy in health indicators between Indigenous and other Australians can be achieved. The findings from this research will provide important information regarding methods to provide for better health for Indigenous Australians and develop a template for intervention design in other remote communities.Read moreRead less
A study investigating the feasibility of implementing a national approach to child and family health services. Understanding and strengthening the way in which universal health services are provided to pregnant women, children and families has the potential to impact over a million Australian families annually. The findings of this study will have national application as federal, state and territory governments work towards implementing a national approach to child and family health services. Th ....A study investigating the feasibility of implementing a national approach to child and family health services. Understanding and strengthening the way in which universal health services are provided to pregnant women, children and families has the potential to impact over a million Australian families annually. The findings of this study will have national application as federal, state and territory governments work towards implementing a national approach to child and family health services. The findings will inform effective multidisciplinary collaboration and service integration, address service gaps and duplication and lead to increased access to services. This study will generate new knowledge about characteristics of organisations, service delivery and professions that facilitate or hinder innovation.Read moreRead less
Towards Evidence-based Adoption And Scale-up Of Cost-saving Primary Health Care Innovations
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$408,768.00
Summary
What innovations like service integration, care coordination and information technology (e.g. text message reminders, remote video consultations, remote monitoring) have in common is that they alter the patient-provider interface, more reliably and consistently than improving clinical outcomes. So, to determine their true costs and benefits, how to select among them and how to scale them up, this research program will assess them based on measures of how they alter patient-provider transactions.