The Aged Care Research and Industry Innovation Australia (ARIIA) has awarded 11 grants to projects that address priorities in the aged care sector, such as dementia care, rehabilitation and reablement, mental health and wellbeing, social isolation, and urgent and critical needs.
The projects include the development of a video app that connects families with loved ones in aged care, a telehealth physiotherapy program for mobility and falls in older people, a workforce development training program for caregivers, a high-quality palliative and end-of-life care education and training program, a skills training program for Chinese carers of people with dementia, a digitally enabled pharmacist service, a toolkit to build social license for activity monitoring in residential aged care, better discharge pathways for older people, a video calling device, a blueprint for values-based care plans for ageing people living in regional areas, and technology to transform the workforce capability and capacity in dementia care.
The grant recipients will work across Australia in urban and regional areas, with a firm commitment to their projects as they must make a co-contribution. They include,
ARIIA Grants have been awarded to 11 projects that address the specific priorities:
- Dossy Company, Uniting Agewell, University of Melbourne, and Two Bulls, for the Dossy Project – Community Connect, a unique video app that connects families and their loved ones in aged care in an intuitive, meaningful way (Social Isolation).
- 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).
- 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 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).
- 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).
- 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).
- 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).
- 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).
- Gretel Analytics, Peninsula Health, and Monash University for their development of a toolkit to build social license into the implementation of activity monitoring in residential aged care settings (Dementia, Rehabilitation, Reablement, & Restorative Care, Social Isolation).
- 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).
- 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).
- 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 ageing people living within regional areas (Dementia, Rehabilitation, Reablement, & Restorative Care, Social Isolation, Mental Health & Wellbeing, Urgent & Critical Need).
The ARIIA Grants Program consists of at least six rounds funded against key sector priorities of focus for the aged care sector that are revised each grant round. Round 3 recipients will be announced soon, and Round 4 is currently open, with applications closing on 17 February 2023.
