Systems for healthy ageing
Designing and scaling sustainable, equitable, evidence-informed models of care for healthy ageing in the north, addressing prevention, hospital avoidance, and community-based care.
Research in this theme focuses on the development, evaluation, and translation of sustainable models of care for healthy ageing that integrate prevention, dementia and cognitive health, disaster preparedness, and community assets. A strong focus is placed on promoting equity, embedding First Nations perspectives and scaling successful local models across northern Australia.
Project and Partners
Investigators: Professor Edward Strivens, Professor Sarah Russell, Dr Rachel Quigley, Professor Sarah Larkins, Dr Rhiann Sue See, Dr Sean Taylor and others
Duration: 01/12/24 – 30/11/2026
Funding: 2023 MRFF Indigenous Health Research $951,004.44
Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is often the preclinical transitional stage between healthy ageing and dementia and people diagnosed with MCI have a 3 to 5 times increased risk of developing dementia than others their age. This project aims to co-design and pilot a model of care for people with MCI living in the Torres Strait and Northern Peninsula Area of Far North Queensland. The project includes piloting community co-designed individual and group-based interventions that are holistic, evidence based and acceptable to the community, as well as improving pathways of care for those with MCI. The model is Indigenous Health Worker-led and implemented within the local health service to ensure sustainability. It is proposed that this model of care will be a feasible, effective, and sustainable means of delivery, providing access to interventions typically only available in metropolitan areas.
Investigators: Professor Edward Strivens, Professor Sarah Russell, Dr Rachel Quigley and others
Duration: 01/04/23-31/03/27
Funding: 2022 MRFF Dementia, Ageing and Aged Care Mission $1,972,395.80
Project description: This national study will strengthen and enhance the utility of the only cognitive screening tool developed for First Nations peoples in Australia (Kimberley Indigenous Cognitive Assessment tool, KICA), enabling earlier and more effective diagnosis of dementia and mild neurocognitive disorder in older Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Firstly, we will review and revise the current KICA tool though collaborative co-design with Elders and clinicians, and research teams who have adapted the KICA in other settings. Next, we will revise and validate a revised KICA tool with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples aged 45 years and above, sampled from 4 different sites across Australia. Lastly, we will co-design training packages and facilitate translation of the revised KICA into policy and practice.
Investigators: Professor Sarah Russell, Dr Rachel Quigley, Professor Edward Strivens, and others
Duration: 2021-2026
Funding: Ian Potter Foundation $375,000; FNQ Hospital Foundation $25,000; Dementia Australia $75,000; Hot North $26,000
Project Description
The aim of this project is to work with Torres Strait communities to develop social and emotional wellbeing screening tools for use in primary care centres across the Torres Strait. As part of this project, we are yarning with communities and health care staff about how people talk about and show when they are depressed and worried. We will use this information to develop and validate appropriate screening tools to assess social and emotional wellbeing. Communities participating in the project include Nguraupai, Waiben, Poruma, Boigu, and Erub Islands and communities in the Northern Peninsula Area.
Investigators: Professor Edward Strivens, Professor Sarah Russell, Dr Rachel Quigley, and others
Duration: 2022-2025
Funding: NHMRC Targeted Call $931,119
This project will investigate the factors that predict healthy ageing in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people by following up a group of older adults who completed a health check including assessment of their thinking and memory abilities, between 2015-2018 in the Torres Strait and Northern Peninsula Area. We will combine information collected in this and the previous study with another ongoing study in Western Australia which has also collected two sets of data at different time points.
Investigators: Professor Edward Strivens, Professor Sarah Russell, Dr Rachel Quigley, and others
Duration: 2020-2025
Funding: NHMRC Centres of Research Excellence Grant $24,000
The aim of this project is to modify a quality-of-life tool, Good Spirit Good Life, that has been developed specifically for older adults living in Aboriginal Communities for the Torres Strait. The project will involve yarning with communities in the Torres Strait about what ‘a good life’ means to them and how the existing tool needs to be changed for the Torres Strait. This tool will them be piloted on Waiben and within the Northern Peninsula Area.
Investigators: Professor Edward Strivens, Professor Sarah Russell, Dr Rachel Quigley, Professor Sarah Larkins and others
Duration: 2022-2026
Funding: $473,642 Medical Research Future Fund
This project aims to develop an understanding of key assets for a strengths-based approach to targeting diet and activity components of chronic disease in the Torres Strait. This information will be used to co-design, implement and evaluate community-led chronic disease prevention interventions at an individual and service provider level. The project involves yarning with communities, developing app-based diet and activity assessment tools specific for the Torres Strait, environmental mapping, and co-design workshops to develop interventions based on community-specific requirements.
Find out more: Stronger Torres Strait Communities