Understanding the implications of pandemic delays for the end of life. The untold toll of Covid-19 is emerging in ‘avoidable deaths’ linked to late(r) diagnosis or treatment due to pandemic-related delay. How delays are experienced and felt across families and communities requires urgent attention. This project aims to understand the implications of pandemic delay for dying and bereavement, including the sociocultural factors that shape experiences of illness and care amid delay. The significanc ....Understanding the implications of pandemic delays for the end of life. The untold toll of Covid-19 is emerging in ‘avoidable deaths’ linked to late(r) diagnosis or treatment due to pandemic-related delay. How delays are experienced and felt across families and communities requires urgent attention. This project aims to understand the implications of pandemic delay for dying and bereavement, including the sociocultural factors that shape experiences of illness and care amid delay. The significance of this project lies in its innovative sociological approach; expected outcomes include the generation of new knowledge on needs at the end of life that move across contexts and settings. Benefits include provision of findings that will inform social and health policy and practice improvements to enable good deaths.Read moreRead less
Understanding communication about advance care planning across the lifespan. This project aims to understand how people communicate about advance care planning for children, adolescents, and adults. This project expects to generate new knowledge by using leading social scientific and linguistic methods to analyse real-world advance care planning conversations and documents. Expected outcomes include detailed knowledge about challenges people encounter in these conversations and how to manage the ....Understanding communication about advance care planning across the lifespan. This project aims to understand how people communicate about advance care planning for children, adolescents, and adults. This project expects to generate new knowledge by using leading social scientific and linguistic methods to analyse real-world advance care planning conversations and documents. Expected outcomes include detailed knowledge about challenges people encounter in these conversations and how to manage these challenges. Over 170,000 Australians die each year, most from serious illness. This project should provide significant benefits to future initiatives for enhancing communication about advance care planning, especially in relation to young Australians, older Australians, and Australians with disabilities.Read moreRead less
Prediction and optimisation of the acoustic performance of mufflers for sleep apnea devices. ResMed is a world leader in the technology of developing products for treating obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). ResMed provided the first successful non-invasive treatment of OSA with their sleep apnea device. Noise reduction is an important issue in the development of this product, since these devices operate on a bedside table. This project will enable the acoustic performance of these small irregularly ....Prediction and optimisation of the acoustic performance of mufflers for sleep apnea devices. ResMed is a world leader in the technology of developing products for treating obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). ResMed provided the first successful non-invasive treatment of OSA with their sleep apnea device. Noise reduction is an important issue in the development of this product, since these devices operate on a bedside table. This project will enable the acoustic performance of these small irregularly shaped mufflers to be reliably predicted and optimised. The successful outcomes will improve the quality of the well-being of the user. This research also has relevance to the design of mufflers for use in broader applications such as locomotives and ferries.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE120101640
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$375,000.00
Summary
The caregiver bereavement study: determining the effect of caregivers' anticipatory grief on post-bereavement outcome. The study discovers the 'true' impact of caregiving and is situated at the forefront of theoretical and methodological innovation. Furthermore, it will enhance the nation's capacity to provide appropriate services to caregivers pre- and post-bereavement which will promote the wellbeing of the large number of caregivers in our communities.
Dignity Therapy: A Novel Psychotherapeutic Intervention for Motor Neurone Disease (MND) Patients near the End of Life. Considering the scarcity of effective interventions for the kinds of distress and suffering that so commonly occur amongst MND dying patients, this novel therapeutic intervention could become a very easy, practical intervention adopted within palliative care facilities and MND organisations. Unlike most palliative care interventions, this approach, leading to the production of a ....Dignity Therapy: A Novel Psychotherapeutic Intervention for Motor Neurone Disease (MND) Patients near the End of Life. Considering the scarcity of effective interventions for the kinds of distress and suffering that so commonly occur amongst MND dying patients, this novel therapeutic intervention could become a very easy, practical intervention adopted within palliative care facilities and MND organisations. Unlike most palliative care interventions, this approach, leading to the production of a generativity document, has the important added potential benefit of being a powerful bereavement intervention for carers. The potential benefits of this intervention could lead to a reduction in in-patient admissions and a reduced need for respite for both the person with MND and the family carer.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE150100285
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$372,000.00
Summary
Who cares? A sociological study of informal care at the end of life. It is often said that a society can be measured by how it cares for its most vulnerable people. Informal care for people nearing the end of life, often provided by family and friends, is a vital area of care for the vulnerable, and is coming under significant pressure in Australia. Our capacity to care is being challenged by economic, social and cultural shifts. This project aims to examine systematically the character of infor ....Who cares? A sociological study of informal care at the end of life. It is often said that a society can be measured by how it cares for its most vulnerable people. Informal care for people nearing the end of life, often provided by family and friends, is a vital area of care for the vulnerable, and is coming under significant pressure in Australia. Our capacity to care is being challenged by economic, social and cultural shifts. This project aims to examine systematically the character of informal care from multi-stakeholder perspectives, providing policy and practice-relevant evidence for better support and understanding of the role and significance of informal care for people approaching the end of life in Australian society.Read moreRead less
From Suspician to Intervention : Improving responsiveness to abuse of the elderly in acute and sub-acute health care. Early identification of risk and an integrated multidisciplinary response across the health service would be effective in responding to the multiple and complex behavioural and social issues which contribute to aged abuse as it presents in emergency, acute and sub-acute care, but are currently often ignored in health services and the literature. We propose that effective use of ....From Suspician to Intervention : Improving responsiveness to abuse of the elderly in acute and sub-acute health care. Early identification of risk and an integrated multidisciplinary response across the health service would be effective in responding to the multiple and complex behavioural and social issues which contribute to aged abuse as it presents in emergency, acute and sub-acute care, but are currently often ignored in health services and the literature. We propose that effective use of this "window of opportunity in health care" could extend the level of community response to this vulnerable group of people. Read moreRead less
Pathways to and through palliative care: a sociological study of patient, carer and clinician experiences at the end-of-life. Palliative care services provide care and support for families, carers and individuals trying to cope with the challenges presented at the end of life. This project will provide critical policy and practice-relevant data in order to improve our understanding of, and support for, the dying process in Australia.
A longitudinal study exploring women's experiences following a prenatal diagnosis of fetal abnormality. In Australia four per cent of babies are born with a congenital abnormality, many of which are detected during pregnancy. Little is known about women's experiences of a diagnosis. The aim of this study is to explore women's experiences following the diagnosis of a fetal abnormality during pregnancy, in order to develop appropriate models of supportive care.
Social Support Provided in China to Older People with Disabilities. The project contributes to understanding our region through the opportunity to demonstrate Australia's engagement with China, with which it is establishing strong links in social, economic and cultural interests. It contributes to national understanding of East Asian policies for older people with a disability, including partnership approaches to social support between government, non-government and communities. The project stre ....Social Support Provided in China to Older People with Disabilities. The project contributes to understanding our region through the opportunity to demonstrate Australia's engagement with China, with which it is establishing strong links in social, economic and cultural interests. It contributes to national understanding of East Asian policies for older people with a disability, including partnership approaches to social support between government, non-government and communities. The project strengthens connections between Australian researchers and policy officials, the China Research Centre on Ageing, and Chinese government organisations.Read moreRead less