ARIIA Grants for 11 aged care projects

Eleven projects have been awarded a grant from Aged Care Research and Industry Innovation Australia (ARIIA) as part of the second round of its Grants Program.

The support provided by the ARIIA Grants will benefit the aged care sector through the development and translation of high-quality projects that address important gaps in the aged care workforce’s capability and knowledge.

Several topics were selected as a priority to improve the aged care sector. Each of the 11 projects directly address one or more of these priorities: Dementia Care, Rehabilitation, Reablement & Restorative Care, Mental Health & Wellbeing, Social Isolation and Urgent & Critical Need.

The recipients are:

1. Dossy Company, Uniting Agewell, University of Melbourne and Two Bulls, for the Dossy Project – Community Connect, a video app that connects families and their loved ones in aged care in an intuitive, meaningful way (Social Isolation).
2. The University of Sydney, Frank Widdon Masonic Homes of NSW and Uniting Agewell, for their TOP UP Study project, aimed at improving mobility in aged care, by evaluating the effectiveness and acceptability of telehealth physiotherapy programs for mobility and falls in older people (Dementia, Rehabilitation, Reablement, & Restorative Care, Urgent & Critical Need).
3. The Violet Initiative, Hammond Care, Estia Health and the University of Wollongong for the Violet Aged Care Industry Solution: a workforce development training program encompassing targeted consumer support. The program aims to build the wellbeing and resilience of formal and informal caregivers of people in the last stage of life and reduce the social isolation for them and their families during this time (Social Isolation, Mental Health & Wellbeing).
4. Hammond Care, the University of Sydney and the University of Technology Sydney, for their high-quality palliative and end-of-life care education and training program for aged care staff to engender a culture of skilled and compassionate care for residents and their families (Dementia, Urgent & Critical Need).
5. Flinders University, the Australian Nursing Home Foundation, Chinese Australian Services Society and the Chinese Welfare Services of SA, for their project that optimises support for Chinese carers of people with dementia through a skills training program and the embedding of iSupport in routine aged care services (Dementia).
6. The University of South Australia, Tanunda Lutheran Home, Tyree Foundation Institute of Health Engineering, Pharmaceutical Society of Australia and Healthy Care Services, for the ADEPT project, a digitally enabled pharmacist service to detect and manage medicine harms in residential aged care (Urgent & Critical Need).
7. Dementia Australia, BUPA and Deakin University, for their project that uses technology to transform workforce capability and capacity to improve the quality of care delivered to people living with dementia (Dementia, Rehabilitation, Reablement, & Restorative Care, Urgent & Critical Need).
8. Gretel Analytics, Peninsula Health and Monash University for their development of a toolkit to build social licence into the implementation of activity monitoring in residential aged care settings (Dementia, Rehabilitation, Reablement, & Restorative Care, Social Isolation).
9. Southern Cross Care, Bond University and Robert Gordon University for their project that aims to enable better discharge pathways for older people to get back into the community following short-term restorative programs (Rehabilitation, Reablement, & Restorative Care).
10. The James Anthony Group and Anglicare SA, for CareWindow, a video calling device that enables two-way audio communication between those in aged care and their families (Dementia, Social Isolation, Mental Health & Wellbeing).
11. Bay & Basin Community Resources, ExSitu, the University of Wollongong and Carers NSW, for their development of a blueprint for values-based care plans that address the unique challenges faced by aging people living within regional areas (Dementia, Rehabilitation, Reablement, & Restorative Care, Social Isolation, Mental Health & Wellbeing, Urgent & Critical Need).

Applications for round four of the ARIIA grants program are now open.

Image credit: iStock.com/Inside Creative House