Transcript
[Beginning of recorded material]
[Title card animation: Dementia Australia Research Foundation - Care]
[Dr Marianne Coleman, University of Melbourne]
Dr Marianne: My name is Marianne Coleman, and I'm a clinical Vision Research fellow here at the University of Melbourne, in the Department of Optometry and Vision Sciences, and also at a clinical organisation here in Melbourne, the Australian College of Optometry's National Vision Research Institute. What's dementia got to do with my eyes? That was something that a person living with dementia asked me when I phoned them up to invite them to take part in my research. In order to keep people living at home with dementia for as long as possible and living independently, it's really important to help them to see as well as possible, for as long as possible. As such, eyecare professionals have a really important role in helping people living with dementia to see well.
Our research is focused on exploring the experiences that people living with dementia have when they go for their eye test. The perspective of carers who are supporting people living with dementia to actually go and have their eyes tested, and to follow eyecare advice at home, and also the perspective of the optometrist who is providing routine eyecare for people living with dementia. However, in Australia, there are no formal clinical guidelines for optometrists and other eyecare professionals about how to adapt their testing to accommodate dementia.
Our research study is currently looking at the ways in which optometrists are doing these little adaptations as they go along, responding to the individual needs of the person living with dementia in the clinic so that we can share all of these different tips and tricks with optometrists all the way across Australia as part of our research program. In general, with the right adaptations, and demonstrating the test, and working with the person with dementia and the carer, it's usually possible to get them to participate in a number of different aspects of the eye examination, even if their dementia is relatively advanced.
And so, our research project is aimed at exploring these different perspectives in order to establish what happens during the routine eye test for somebody living with dementia, and what are the different things that we could do to make that experience better for the person living with dementia, for the carer, and for the optometrists delivering the test as well.
We've received funding from the Dementia Australia Research Foundation to support our project. It's called the Victoria Grant Project. The research project funding that we have is going towards three key elements. Firstly, we are employing somebody with expertise of working with people living with dementia, a qualified social worker, to conduct the interviews. This ensures that the interviews are conducted sensitively, and respect the needs and feelings of people living with dementia and carers. Alongside this, we've also put some money towards the cost of involving dementia advocates within the research, and they've given us input in all kinds of areas from human research ethics application, and the design of documentation to be read by people living with dementia and carers, and also, the information cards that we will be developing about eye tests and eyecare for people living with dementia and carers.
Another key component of the funding is being put towards the development of the training course itself. So, this training course is being developed by the University of Melbourne's mobile learning unit, and it's an online course for any optometrist in Australia to complete. By breaking down these barriers to accessing dementia-friendly eyecare, we hope to make it easier for people living with dementia to see as well as possible, for as long as possible, to keep them living at home, reducing their risk of falls, and being able to engage in visual activities that they enjoy.
[Title card]
This research is supported by:
Dementia Australia Research Foundation – Victoria Project Grant
The University of Melbourne
Australian College of Optometry (National Vision Research Institute)
Dr Coleman would like to acknowledge:
Carers Victoria
We thank Susan Bannatyne and Lucas’ Papaw Remedies for their support.
[End title card]
[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
[End title card]
[END of recorded material]
