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[Title card animation: Dementia Australia Research Foundation - Care]
[Text: Dr Deborah Brooks, The University of Queensland]
Dr Brooks: My name is Dr Deborah Brooks. I'm a research fellow at the University of Queensland Centre for Clinical Research, and a visiting fellow at Queensland University of Technology. My research really focuses on improving the mental health and emotional wellbeing, both family carers of people with dementia, particularly around the transition into residential aged care, and then also looking at the mental health and wellbeing of the residents who are living in aged care as well.
Some of the emotional impacts of the transition into residential aged care, for family members, it's often described as being one of the most difficult and stressful times for them. They have feelings of stress, distress, anxiety sometimes, guilt is quite common, and also, feelings of loss and grief. For residents as well, they can experience feelings of sadness, of loneliness, depression, anxiety as well. So, there are wide ranging emotional impacts on people.
My research with family carers is really looking at improving the support, emotional support and practical support, for families when they are thinking about and moving a loved one with dementia into residential care. For residents with dementia, we are looking at developing a tool that can help aged care facilities to manage and promote the mental health of their residents, so really looking at what improvements they can make to improve quality of life for residents.
[Text: Neil Page, family carer]
Neil: I think the project is going to provide a widely accessible tool to monitor mental health and knowledge down to the coalface, where the staff in aged care facilities can actually learn more about it, and to apply it when it's needed. They'll also be able to use it for tailoring the care that they provide individual residents, and from that point of view, it will provide a tool for them to optimise, or to reduce, in part, their workload, because if they know how to deal with people's mental health problems, then they'll be able to manage them better, and they'll be less work for them to have to do.
Deborah: Co-design is really important when we're designing programs and tools, because we want to involve all the key people who are impacted. That could be the residents, family carers, former carers such as Neil, and aged care staff and industry experts.
My interest in dementia research goes back a long way. Like many people, we have family experience of dementia. My grandfather had Alzheimer's disease. My mum was his primary carer, and he also moved into residential aged care. So for me, this is important, personally and professionally,
I've been very fortunate to receive three grants from Dementia Australia Research Foundation to support this work, which is really important especially as an early career researcher.
It would be absolutely wonderful to get this research into practice. I would really love to see this counselling program available to any family carer who was thinking about, or in the process of moving a loved one with dementia into residential aged care. Anybody who needed that support to make that widely available. I would also love to see care homes focusing on the mental health of their residents.
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This research is supported by:
Dementia Centre for Research Collaboration
Dementia Australia Research Foundation
The University of Queensland
Queensland University of Technology
Dr Brooks would like to acknowledge the research team:
The research teams: (Katy Wyles, Gabriela Pacas Fronza, Professor Nancy Pachana, Emeritus Professor Elizabeth Beattie, Professor Joseph Gaugler, Dr Deepa Sriram, Dr Rachel Brimelow, Dr Claire Burley, and Associate Professor Nadeeka Dissanayaka), the lived and living experience experts, advisory groups, and all the participants for making this research possible.
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[Title card]
Dementia Australia Research Foundation
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Dementia Australia Research Foundation:
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www.dementia.org.au/donate-research
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