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[Title card animation: Dementia Australia Research Foundation - Delay]
[Dr Nathan D’Cunha, University of Canberra]
Dr Nathan: My name is Nathan D’Cunha, and I'm an associate lecturer at the University of Canberra. As you may know, dementia is the second leading cause of death in Australia affecting almost half a million people, and the leading cause of death among women. And I've had a very personal connection to dementia throughout my adult life so far.
Straight out of high school, I worked in residential aged care for three years, and so I was very connected with people with dementia during that time. And then both of my grandmothers were diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, and actually, moved into the aged care home that I was working at. Then, I got interested in research a couple of years later, I originally got interested from personal perspective in trying to learn about dementia and be able to understand research so that I could potentially prevent dementia for myself later in my life. And during that time, my mom got diagnosed with dementia as well, and it was actually the Dementia Australia PhD scholarship that really helped push me towards looking into different ways that you can improve the quality of life of people living with dementia.
The biggest study of my PhD was working with the National Gallery of Australia's Art and Dementia Program, which is a very long running program and probably the most successful program in the world. That includes people living with dementia into their access programs as part of small arts-based discussion groups. They take them around the gallery to three to four different works of art sitting down in front of each, and it's a really open discussion led by other participants.
For example, I remember when we were there, we were looking at some Australian arts, a farm in Victoria, and some of the participants were from Victoria or had lived on a farm, and it just brought back all of these memories. Being able to observe that and just see them getting quite emotional that they're actually able to remember some of these things, I think is just a really great example of how powerful art and dementia programs can be.
What the really unique aspect of our research was is that we collected saliva samples before the six week intervention, after the six weeks, and then again six weeks later. And we wanted to look at changes in their stress responses through salivary cortisol. So the interesting thing that we found in our participants was that the morning cortisol to evening cortisol ratio changed, and that showed that their physiological functioning. And so we think that because of being able to get out and about to be involved in this program, it made some sort of subtle change within their physiology. We can't actually say that it was the art and dementia program that caused that, there could have been a number of different factors. And also, we need to replicate the study as well with a control group and a longer study, and potentially with more participants before we can actually say that change was meaningful.
Another aspect we looked at in my PhD was to see if we could measure benefits from bringing the outside inside into residential aged care. Not everyone that lived in the Residential Aged Care Home could actually participate and go to the gallery, maybe due to physical limitation or another reason. So, one of the reasons we wanted to see whether these virtual experiences could provide benefits was for those people who are unable to go out into the community as easily as some of the residents that were participating. So that's why we looked at the virtual intervention as a way that they could engage in some of these interesting type experiences like virtual cycling.
And the interesting thing that we did was we had people cycle around Canberra with a GoPro on their head, filming interesting locations around Canberra that we could then show to residents on a projector, and that they could cycle along to. And really, we wanted to see whether they enjoyed this mostly, and whether they could enjoy being around other people while doing it.
The Dementia Australia Research Foundation, PhD scholarship has really been able to launch me into research into dementia and quality of life of people living with dementia. The study that we did with the National Gallery received worldwide media attention. It was on the front page of the Canberra Times, it was on tv, and it was on very well subscribed blog posts in New York, London, Sydney Morning Herald, and so on. And so, getting that exposure from the research that we did, it really helped me to form connections in the dementia space, particularly around Canberra, and also other parts of Australia as well.
Dementia is incurable at the moment, and there is a lot of focus on prevention, treatment, and curing dementia, but we need to also focus on people who are currently living with dementia to maximise their quality of life, and to help reduce their cognitive decline for the rest of their life so that they can spend more time with their family. They can enjoy things, they can live their best quality of life, and that's why the research that I did in my Dementia Australia Research Foundation PhD scholarship is important.
[Title card]
This research is supported by:
Dementia Australia Research Foundation PhD Scholarship
University of Canberra
Dr D’Cunha would like to acknowledge:
National Gallery of Australia Art and Dementia Program,
Australian Association of Gerontology, Southern Cross Care,
Illawarra Retirement Trust, Villaggio Sant’Antonio,
BaptistCare and St Andrew’s Village.
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[Title card]
Dementia Australia Research Foundation:
A cure is just the beginning
If you would like to see dementia research make real impact, donate today:
1300 636 679
www.dementia.org.au/donate-research
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