ABSTRACT

In 2015 my Dad, Jim, was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. When my Mum said to me one day, “I don’t know what to do,” I decided to quit my communications career in construction because I needed to know what to do so I could communicate it to others impacted by dementia.

The foundation of dementia care is understanding brain change to a level of competency that means we see care from the other person’s brain’s point of view. For the industry to achieve this we’re going to need to be willing to get uncomfortable, be brave, learn new things and sometimes fail.

While Melbourne was locked down, I got busy building connections and knowledge in dementia care. I’ve completed a Diploma in Dementia Care at the University of Tasmania, I’ve become a board member of Caladenia Dementia Care, I continue to work with Dementia Australia and I’ve become a qualified Trainer & Assessor so I can teach Unit CHCAGE005 through a new Positive Approach® to Care lens. That is that dementia is a brain change and it requires effective care partner communication to achieve a positive experience for everyone.

There are those that say and those that do, this is what I’m doing.

PRESENTER BIO

​Tara McDonald’s passion for dementia care comes from being the secondary care partner to her father, Jim, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease in late 2015 at 66 years old. Tara is a dementia advocate in her own right and is the Australian representative and Mentor for Teepa Snow’s Positive Approach to Care model. She also continues to fly from Melbourne to Brisbane whenever she can to visit her dad, who she and her family decided to move to Queensland to receive full-time care because there was no appropriate for him in Melbourne.

VIDEO ABSTRACT

ABSTRACT

The MATCH project - Music Attuned Technology – Care via eHealth, is a project funded by the Medical Research Future Fund that aims to develop and deliver a consumer-centred program that helps care-partners use music to support people living with dementia in the community, residential aged care, and during the transition period from home to residential care. The project aims to translate a care-partner training program that has been designed by music therapists and trialled in an international randomised controlled trial (HOMESIDE), into an accessible application (the MATCH app) that can be used on smartphones and tablets. This paper will introduce the MATCH app, and present findings from two preliminary studies:

1. A content and face validity study, in which care-partners who were previously trained in using music-therapy techniques and experienced music therapists reviewed the training modules developed for the MATCH app to confirm their validity and acceptability.
2. A preliminary trial of the MATCH prototype with people who are living with dementia and their family care-partners who live in the community.

The perspectives of participants will be shared, and we will reflect on how their feedback will shape the next phase of development of the MATCH app.

PRESENTER BIO

Felicity A. Baker is Professor of Music Therapy and Associate Dean (Research) for the Faculty of Fine Arts and Music, The University of Melbourne. She is Associate Editor of the Journal of Music Therapy and serves on the board of other music therapy journals. Felicity has attracted more than $15 million in competitive research funding, including 3 NHMRC grants, 2 EU JPND grants, an ARC Future Fellowship and ARC Discovery Grant. Her clinical and research expertise are predominantly in neurorehabilitation and dementia, with special interest in communication rehabilitation and facilitating emotional adjustment to a changed identity via music therapy methods.

Dr Zara Thompson is a post-doctoral research fellow and music therapist at The University of Melbourne. Her clinical and research interest relates to using music to support people living with dementia and their care-partners, and how music can create accessible and inclusive communities. Zara also works clinically with NDIS participants, and facilitates the Rewire Musical Memories choir – an inclusive and therapeutic choir for people living with dementia and their care-partners.

VIDEO ABSTRACT

ABSTRACT

The Royal Commission and COVID-19 pandemic have highlighted the failings of institutional care models. What the report did not emphasize enough was the negative impact the current built environment can have on the physical and mental well-being of both staff and residents.

As designers braving the future in the built environment, we have the responsibility to question our approach thus far. Can we offer a resident-based solution that prioritises and balances the needs of the residents over other operational functions?

This presentation will review different building typologies and trends in past and current projects and provide insight into what the future could look like. It will consider how providing holistic and person-centred design is crucial to achieving better outcomes for people living with dementia, ageing in place and supporting new care models.

It will demonstrate how a more collaborative approach can create truly sustainable buildings that are sustainable not just environmentally but socially and economically as well.

Various technologies will be shared that can be embraced and incorporated into the design, as well as how is this beneficial both in terms of aging in place and improving the lives of residents in homes.

PRESENTER BIO

Daniela Kaiser is an interior architect working in the aged care sector. With a clear focus on designing for Dementia, Daniela has undertaken courses at University of Tasmania to understand the diseases behind Dementia. She has also been closely affiliated with DSDC (Dementia Services Development Centre – University of Sterling) undergoing training of dementia care design and delivering DSDC accredited projects. Her focus and research in dementia has seen Daniela publishing various thought leadership articles. She is an advocate for good, functional design that will not only greatly improve people’s quality of life but also gives back dignity and respect to the most vulnerable members of our society.

Paul Huxtable is a Registered Architect with over 40 years’ experience in the documentation and construction management of large-scale multifaceted projects. His expertise covers a multitude of sectors including residential, commercial, education, with a strong focus on seniors living projects. As a certified Access Consultant, Paul has attained in-depth knowledge of access and equity legislation, and the issues as they pertain to building design and construction.

VIDEO ABSTRACT

ABSTRACT

Care for people living with dementia should consider both the medical treatments and the emotional support that they and their support network require. These environments should be uplifting spaces - when done well, they have the ability to offer connection to a community, space for reflection, and to give control to those diagnosed with dementia for their journey ahead. Maggie’s Centres are an excellent example. A cancer support and information drop-in centre, they exemplify how buildings can affect care through the use of architectural considerations like light, material, colour, scale.

Our paper explores what evidence-based design principles work at Maggie’s Centres. Through our extensive experience designing community buildings and spaces for people living with dementia, we will audit these design principles to identify how they provide uplifting, supporting spaces that enable emotional healing to patients and their support network of loved ones. We will then translate these applications to a palliative care setting to identify how architectural interventions can be used to improve the care offered for residents and patients to receive emotional support and for them and their loved ones to flourish in their community.

PRESENTER BIO

Jonathan Chew is an Associate at architecture firm Bickerton Masters. He combines his strengths in communication, people management and story-telling to create approaches that align with their ‘design through understanding’ ethos. His passion lies in advocating for dementia design in environments for the elderly. He has spent the past three years on secondment with HammondCare in Property & Capital Works and The Dementia Centre. Prior to this, he was a Philip Y Bisset scholarship finalist, proposing to explore international applications of CALD populations in dementia care. He also presented at the 2020 Dementia Conference on increasing density in dementia-specific care environments.

Adrian Rivalland is a talented designer with a reputation for igniting project momentum and generating stakeholder engagement. Based in Melbourne, he leads an energetic, diverse studio that centres around a supportive and inclusive environment. He is deeply in tune with the impact that buildings can have on the people and communities that inhabit them. Adrian has been instrumental in the practice of embracing universal and sustainable design principles, particularly through projects for community health and youth mental health services. His passion for creating enabling spaces is fuelled by a broad range of design skills and collaborative approaches with clients, consultants and contractors.

VIDEO ABSTRACT