Aged Care Research and Industry Innovation Australia (ARIIA) has unveiled the recipients of its Fourth Round Grants Program, marking another milestone in the pursuit of advancements in the aged care sector. The ARIIA Grants Program aims to support projects that bridge important gaps in the capability and knowledge of the aged care workforce.
Working closely with the sector, ARIIA has identified several priority areas for improvement in aged care, including Dementia Care, Rehabilitation, Reablement & Restorative Care, Mental Health & Well-being, Social Isolation, Urgent & Critical Need, End of Life and Palliative Care, and Meaningful Lifestyle Activities. Notably, this round has introduced a new focus on Addressing Staff Burnout.
A total of ten projects have been awarded ARIIA Grants to address these specific priorities. The recipients and their respective projects include:
- Swinburne University of Technology, Uniting (NSW, ACT), The Salvation Army, and the University of Melbourne for their social connection assessment and enablement toolkit. (Rehabilitation, Reablement & Restorative Care, Social Isolation, Mental Health and Wellbeing, Urgent & Critical Need)
- The University of Canberra, Valleyview of Riverview and Residence Collie Inc for their project to enhance the quality of care through a digital alert staff feedback system. (Dementia, Rehabilitation, Reablement & Restorative Care, Staff Burnout)
- Uniting Communities and Flinders University for their Safewards intervention program to reduce the use of restrictive practices in residential aged care. (Dementia, Mental Health and Wellbeing, Staff Burnout, Urgent & Critical Need)
- Bolton Clarke, Flinders University College of Medicine and Public Health for Enabling Choices, a risk negotiation tool for frontline staff to collaborate with people living with dementia. (Dementia)
- Monash Health and Regis for their palliative and end-of-life care improvement program, for people living in residential aged care. (End Of Life and Palliative Care)
- Barossa Hills Fleurieu Local Health Network and Flinders University for their pilot program that embeds a palliative care link nurse into residential aged care in regional South Australia. (End Of Life and Palliative Care)
- The University of Tasmania and One Care for their implementation of a mindfulness program to build resilience and reduce staff burnout of aged care staff. (Staff Burnout)
- Dementia Australia, Deakin University School of Nursing and Midwifery, Barwon Health and National Ageing Research Institute for their project to Improve workforce capability and capacity through the use of an artificially intelligent (AI) avatar to communicate with people living with dementia. (Dementia, Mental Health and Wellbeing, Urgent & Critical Need)
- La Trobe University, Sunraysia Community Health Service and Monash Health for their implementation of a novel palliative care assessment toolkit in rural residential aged care facilities. End Of Life and Palliative Care, Urgent & Critical Need)
- St Basil’s Homes (SA) and Griffith University for developing and piloting a role matrix that empowers careers across aged care (Staff Burnout, Urgent & Critical Needs)
ARIIA Research Director, Professor Sue Gordon says that the ARIIA Grants address community-based and residential care priorities and will enable the recipients to make improvements in urban and regional areas across Australia.
“Once again, the standard of applications was high, with a few addressing staff burnout, which has been identified as a serious issue by the aged care sector, and the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission.
“Historically, it takes around 17 years to translate research discovery and evidence into practice, and even then, only about 14%”, Prof Gordon added.
The ARIIA Grants Program will soon announce the recipients for Round 5, while Round 6 (the final round) closed on June 23, 2023.
