Dr Anita Goh

Any kind of dementia care delivered by the aged care system needs to be high quality and based on using the best practices, which are informed by research. There are many dementia programs or ‘interventions’, which have been formally tested in research to show improvement in outcomes, but translation of these into practice doesn’t just happen. It takes an average of 17 years for research evidence to reach clinical practice. There is no “one-size-fits-all” approach to translating interventions into practice in aged care, and care providers can be slow to use new interventions, with many barriers to effective research translation. This fellowship helps to bridge the 17-year gap and focuses on how we can get research evidence used on the ground, used properly, and to lead to real change in dementia care. The aims of this fellowship are to help speed up research translation by: deepening understanding of how to move evidence into practice; and improving the adoption and integration of dementia interventions, with the overall aim to improve quality of life and health outcomes for the dementia community. The fellowship will use the principles and theories of implementation science, behavioural science, organisational theory, and change management to understand how to achieve faster and more effective use of dementia interventions in aged care, and how to collaboratively work with aged care providers to find a shared commitment to implement changes, align evidence-based programs to organisational characteristics, and understand the best strategies for rollout.