Allied Health Professionals

Kicking Mealtime Goals Using a Multidisciplinary Approach: The Role of Allied Health in Maggie Beer’s Big Mission

Elizabeth Oliver
Occupational Therapist, Curtin University

Maggie Beer’s Big Mission is a social experiment designed to enhance the mealtime experience for older adults living in residential care. Join Occupational Therapist and Project Leader, Elizabeth Oliver, as she describes how changes to meals and dining experiences can have transformational effects and reciprocal benefits for residents, staff, and the culture of care. Elizabeth will demonstrate how an embedded model of allied health that encompasses a multi-tiered system of supports can foster culture change and enhance quality of care.

Supporting Transitions of Care: Dementia Friendly Ambulance Services

Lindsay Bent
ASM OStJ Churchill Fellow Clinical Lead, Communications Centres Specialist Operations and Coordination Ambulance Victoria

Australian ambulance services are acutely aware of the impact dementia has on an individual and their carers but has made little progress to directly address this issue. This presentation will provide an overview of learnings through a Winston Churchill Fellowship, how ambulance trusts in the UK have worked towards becoming more dementia friendly, the key drivers for change and the learnings for allied health professionals.

“Huddle Up” Panel Discussion

Previous speakers will come together to discuss the presentations from the morning and reaffirm the role of allied health in achieving safe and high-quality care for people living with dementia, including supporting successful transitions of care across the care continuum.

Understanding and Reducing Dementia Risk: Translating Research into Allied Health Practice

Professor Blossom Stephan
Chair in Dementia (Curtin University and Dementia Australia) and Director of the Dementia Centre of Excellence

Discover how epidemiological research findings have been translated into dementia risk assessment models for use in clinical practice, including evidence-based prevention strategies targeting the key modifiable risk factors for dementia. A practical framework for implementing risk reduction interventions across allied health practice, focusing on lifestyle, social, and health risk factors will also be presented.

Multicomponent Allied Health Interventions for People With Dementia

Associate Professor Nathan D’Cunha
Dementia and Cognition Theme Lead, Centre for Ageing Research and Translation, University of Canberra

There is increasing evidence that multicomponent interventions help people with dementia live well after diagnosis and provide essential support to their care partners. One example in the ACT is the allied health led Sustainable Personalised Interventions for Cognitive, Care, and Engagement (SPICE) program based at the University of Canberra Hospital. SPICE is a combination of evidence-based interventions which includes group and individual components over ten weeks. This presentation will describe the program, its benefits, and challenges to implementation.