Improving health and wellbeing among Senior Australians using an interdisciplinary approach

Date / time: Wednesday, September 26, 16:00
Venue: Ito Campus, Centre Zone Building No. 3, Room 3501 (Fifth Floor)

Title of talk:

Improving health and wellbeing among Senior Australians using an interdisciplinary approach

This presentation will describe health and community care system in response to the Australia’s growing ageing population. The John Richards Centre at La Trobe University was established in 2007 to support older people to live independently in the community and improve health and well being of older people in rural communities. The centre is the only interdisciplinary rural ageing and aged care research institution in Australia. There are four main research areas of the centre including ageing in place, health and aged care, workforce and technology. Examples of current and past research around these key areas will be highlighted. The aim of this presentation is to generate discussion for collaboration for future ageing research between La Trobe University Australia and Kyushu University.

Professor Irene Blackberry is Chair of Rural Ageing Research and Director of John Richards Centre at La Trobe University, Australia. She is President of the Australian Association of Gerontology Victoria and on the editorial board of Elsevier Primary Care Diabetes journal. Irene has a medical background and an expertise in pragmatic trials of interdisciplinary health services research across the community, primary, secondary and tertiary care settings drawing on both qualitative and quantitative research methods. She has attracted over $13M in research funding and published over 80 research papers in leading international journals and key reports.

Her current research program focuses on improving access to care and health outcomes among older people with complex chronic conditions, particularly those living in rural communities. Her PhD on Food Habits in Later Life, conducted under the auspices of the World Health Organization, examined what made people aged 70 years and over across Japan, Australia, Sweden and Greece lived healthy and longer. Her study was the first in the world to show evidence that adherence to a Mediterranean dietary pattern predicted survival amongst these long lived cultures.