Healthy Ageing Research Team (HART)

Dr Eddy Strivens is a practising clinician and national leader in geriatric medicine and dementia, working in Far North Queensland for over 20 years. He has held an academic appointment with James Cook University since the commencement of the Clinical School in Cairns. His research interests are in Culturally Appropriate Assessment, Healthy Ageing, Integrated Care and Models of Service Delivery.  He has worked extensively with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Communities in Far North Queensland and has validated the use of culturally appropriate cognitive assessment tools in this population. He is practised in linking research with clinical outcomes in these communities.

Executive support officer: Karen Christiansen CHHHS_OPSAR@health.qld.gov.au

Dr Sarah Russell is an Associate Professor with the College of Medicine and Dentistry, James Cook University and is a founding member of the Healthy Ageing Research Team (HART). Her research focuses on healthy ageing and dementia, with a particular focus on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in FNQ. This includes developing and validating appropriate screening tools for cognition and socioemotional wellbeing for Aboriginal and Torrs Strait communities. Sarah holds a Masters/PhD in Clinical Neuropsychology and works as a Clinical Neuropsychologist in private practice. Sarah also provides research supervision to postgraduate students and clinical supervision to psychologists and neuropsychologists.

Rachel Quigley is a physiotherapist working in the field gerontology for over 20 years. She has worked in the UK, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Australia. She holds a clinical role in Cairns Hospital, as the Older Persons Liaison Advanced Clinician and has completed a MPhil through Griffith University focusing on the experiences of carers of older adults as they navigate aged care and health care systems. Rachel also holds a senior research position with the Healthy Ageing Research Team (HART) at James Cook University, Queensland, Australia. This research role focuses on projects involved with dementia and ageing within Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations in Far North Queensland as well as models of integrated care. She is undertaking a PhD through JCU, developing a framework of healthy ageing for the Torres Strait.

Gavin studied Medicine at the University of Newcastle and is a Senior Medical Officer in Geriatric Medicine with Cairns and Hinterland Hospital and Health Service. He is an Investigator on the Reducing risk in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Communities and A Framework for Healthy Ageing in the Torres Strait, with HART.

Research Assistant

Betty Sagigi is a Torres Strait Islander Indigenous Health Worker. She is the Aged Care Assessment Team Coordinator and Assessor for the Torres Strait and Northern Peninsula Area, working as part of Thursday Island’s Primary Health Post-Acute Rehab and Aged Care Program within Torres and Cape Hospital & Health Services for the last 10 years. Prior to this role, she managed Commonwealth Funding Agreements for the Primary Health Care Indigenous Health Programs and managed initiatives under Queensland State Government Department of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Policy. Betty has been an integral part of the Healthy Ageing Research Team and has worked on the Dementia Prevalence study from design, data collection and through to knowledge translation. She has ensured the screening tools for dementia are culturally appropriate, facilitated maximum community participation and ensured that community consultation and engagement is conducted in a culturally safe and appropriate way.

Research Officer

Valda.wallace@jcu.edu.au

Valda (Val) identifies as a Gugu Badhun woman (Valley of Lagoons/Ewan Country) and acknowledges her South Sea Islander, German, Chinese and European heritage. Val grew up on the Atherton Tablelands and has ties to the Torres Strait Island communities through family, friends and work colleagues. Val’s lived experience as an Aboriginal person is complemented by professional qualifications and her work. As such she has an in depth understanding of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples as two separate cultural groups each with their own world views and cultural values and beliefs and different histories, experiences and circumstances. Her work background which spans over forty years includes health, policing and academia and she has experience in qualitative research, community engagement, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander protocols and research ethics. Val believes that despite the challenges facing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, our knowledges, strong cultural beliefs, strengths and resilience continue to contribute to innovation and research, community development, provision of appropriate services and improved health and educational outcomes. Working towards improved outcomes drives Val’s passion for working with her people.

Jennifer co-developed and is the current program manager for the Older Persons Integrated Health Service in Cairns that provides comprehensive care for frail older persons and those with complex needs in the ED, community and residential care settings. Jennifer is an occupational therapist by profession and holds a Master of Public Health. She is a PhD candidate at James Cook University through which she is exploring the effectiveness of the OPEN ARCH service - an integrated model of care for older persons with complex needs. Jennifer is passionate about integrated care solutions – she attended the International Summer School on Integrated Care at Oxford University in 2019 and is an active member of the International Foundation of Integrated Care.

Researcher

Yvonne is an Early Career Research Fellow on the NHMRC funded project - Dementia Risk Reduction in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. She is a medical anthropologist by training, with a research interest in lifestyle-related risk factors for chronic disease, including dementia in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. Yvonne is based in Brisbane and has worked in primary and secondary health services research since moving from the UK, to Australia in 2014. She has collaborated with HART, conducting ageing related research with remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in Far North Queensland, including the Torres Strait since 2015. Her previous research has centred on quantitative and qualitative investigations into lifestyle related factors for chronic disease in ethnic minority children.

Melissa is an Accredited Practicing Dietitian with a background studying IT. She works as a Dietitian at the Cairns Hospital and Cairns Diabetes Centre. As a Clinical Dietitian, Melissa has worked in geriatrics, rehabilitation, medical, diabetes, and community health; as well as a period with the CHHHS Digital Hospital Team involved with maintaining and training for the hospital's electronic medical record (ieMR). This combination of technology and clinical experience has fostered an interest in whole systems approaches and an understanding of how both upstream and downstream factors impact health outcomes. Melissa grew up in Far North Queensland and has an interest Indigenous health, including how systems design can impact different levels of health for individuals and community in Far North Queensland.

Rhiann was born and raised in Cairns and through her father is an ancestor of the Waanyi people. She holds a fellowship in Geriatric Medicine (FRACP) and is currently completing her final year of advanced training in General & Acute Care Medicine within Queensland Health. Rhiann completed undergraduate degrees in both Medicine and Psychology (hons) at the University of Queensland. Through her clinical work and research Rhiann has a desire to positively impact the health of older persons, especially those within our First Nations Communities. As an emerging researcher, her focus is on dementia prevention and within this she is currently pursuing PhD studies.

Research Assistant

Ms Chenoa Wapau is a Torres Strait Islander Indigenous Research Assistant. She is a health worker by background and is currently a first year Nursing student. She was previously and remains involved in the Diabetes in Pregnancy Partnership with Menzies School of Health Research. Chenoa remains open and keen to gain further experiences, in aiming to focus on the implementation of upstream interventions and preventing non-communicable diseases from passing on to newer generations within the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations.

Fintan Thompson has qualifications in epidemiology and clinical neuropsychology. He works as a Data Analyst at James Cook University and a Clinical Neuropsychologist Registrar at the Cairns Hospital. He has previously worked in epidemiology for governments, academia and humanitarian organisations. As a clinical neuropsychologist, Fintan has worked in rehabilitation, geriatrics, psychiatry and paediatrics. This combination of epidemiology and clinical experience provides Fintan with an understanding of how injury and disease at the population level impacts people at the individual level. He is from Far North Queensland and has an interest Indigenous health, including how midlife risk and protective factors influence cognitive functioning in later life.

Narelle Parsell joined the HART team in August 2024 as an Administration Officer, bringing with her over a decade of diverse experience at James Cook University (JCU). She began her career at JCU in 2013 in the Estate Directorate, where she worked for two years before transitioning to the College of Marine and Environmental Sciences, providing administrative support in the E precinct in Cairns.
Following a 2016 restructure, Narelle moved to the College of Business, Law and Governance (CBLG). After two years, she accepted a role as a Travel Officer within the Division of Tropical Environment and Sciences (DTES). In 2022, after another structural change at JCU, she returned to CBLG.
Narelle’s extensive experience within JCU, along with her prior work with allied health teams in the Queensland Government, equips her with valuable expertise that she now brings to the HART team.