ARIIA Round 4 Grants to help positive ageing in Australia

ARIIA Grants to boost positive ageing in Australia

Aged Care Research and Industry Innovation Australia (ARIIA) has announced the recipients of the Fourth 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.

Working in consultation with the sector, several topics have been identified as a priority for attention to improve aged care: Dementia Care; Rehabilitation, Reablement & Restorative Care; Mental Health & Wellbeing; Social Isolation; Urgent & Critical Need; End of Life and Palliative Care; and Meaningful Lifestyle Activities. For this round, several new topics have been identified: Addressing Staff Burnout; Technology in Aged Care; and Clinical Governance.

ARIIA Grants have been awarded to 10 projects that address these specific priorities:

1. Swinburne University of Technology, Uniting (NSW, ACT), The Salvation Army, and University of Melbourne for their social connection assessment and enablement toolkit. (Rehabilitation, Reablement & Restorative Care, Social Isolation, Mental Health and Wellbeing, Urgent & Critical Need)
2. 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)
3. 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)
4. 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)
5. 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)
6. 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)
7. 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)
8. 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)
9. 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)
10. 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 Need)

 

“ ARIIA Grants address community-based care and residential care priorities and will enable the recipients to work across Australia in urban and regional areas.

“Once again, the standard of applications was high, with a few addressing staff burnout, which has been identified as a serious issue in discussion with the aged care sector, and the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission.

“As these projects must be undertaken over the next twelve months, we will be able to see research evidence about the effects of staff burnout and the impacts these projects can have to address this issue and job satisfaction in aged care.

“Historically, it takes around 17 years to translate research discovery and evidence into practice, and even then, only about 14% of research evidence is fully implemented and integrated, so this makes a refreshing change for research projects.

“It is also good to see aged care providers and research organisations working together and partnering with others to deliver improvements in areas of need, and as they must make a co-contribution to their project, they have a firm commitment to it.

“We look forward to seeing how the Grant recipient’s projects result in practical outcomes, and real-world solutions with efficiency and immediacy that was previously unheard of.

“Collaboration is the heart of ARIIA’s activities we are grateful for the partnerships and funding we have received from the Australian and State Governments and Flinders University that enable us to work with the aged care sector to make significant improvements.

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 5 recipients will be announced soon, and Round 6 is currently open, with applications closing on 23 June 2023.