ARIIA grants for 11 more aged care collaborations

Projects to develop a toolkit to help aged care providers use activity monitoring technologies and a video app to connect aged care recipients with volunteers are among 11 aged care innovation projects being funded this week.

Aged Care Research and Industry Innovation Australia announced the recipients of the second round of its awards program on Monday. The awards aim to benefit the aged care sector through the development and translation of high quality projects that address important gaps in the aged care workforce’s ability and knowledge.

These awards target five priority areas identified in consultation with the sector to improve aged care, including:

dementia care rehabilitation, recovery and restorative care mental health and wellbeing social isolation urgent and critical need. Gretel Analytics Dashboard and Heatmap

Technology start-up Gretel Analytics in partnership with Peninsula Health and Monash University has received a grant to develop a toolkit for care providers. As previously reported, Gretel Analytics’ sensor-based smart building solution uses computer vision data and other dynamic data streams and real-time alerts to target issues such as fall response, boundary violations, aggressive behavior, adequate socialization and contact tracing, as well as tracking. how many minutes of care a resident receives.

George Armstrong

Gretel Analytics CEO Georgie Armstrong said she was delighted to receive an ARIIA award.

“Our research project is about balancing the tension between the ability to provide meaningful reporting through surveillance technology, and adhering to data collection and management practices that uphold consumer dignity and privacy as a priority,” Ms Armstrong told Australian Aging Agenda said.

“In collaboration with Monash University, we will develop and distribute a toolkit to help carers build social licenses to introduce activity monitoring technologies and processes within the care environment. We will engage with community stakeholders as we co-design a framework what is needed to respectfully and effectively use data in care – for safer care environments and better quality of life.”

Digital transformation is essential to achieve transparency, efficiency and quality in aged care, Ms Armstrong said. “Funding a project like ours ensures that consumers, families, carers and unions are all on board and heard during this transformational process.”

Professor Sue Gordon

ARIIA Research Director Professor Sue Gordon said the standard of applications was once again high.

“ARIIA grants enable aged care providers and research organizations to collaborate and collaborate with others to deliver improvements in areas of need, and as they have to make a co-contribution to their project, they have a firm commitment to it,” said Professor Gordon.

Successful grant recipients must undertake their project over 12 months, which means research discoveries are translated into real job benefits in real time, she said.

Also awarded is the Dossy Project – Community Connect, which is a collaboration between technology start-up Dossy, aged care provider Uniting Agewell, University of Melbourne and digital product studio Two Bulls. Dossy is a simple video application that connects older people with their loved ones.

Dossy is a video app to connect older people with their loved ones, and now volunteers

Most of the grant funds will go toward building a technology platform for older people to reach out to digital volunteers from all walks of life, Dossy founder Kristen Graham said.

Kristen Graham

“As we get older, our social networks get smaller. Some older adults do not have family or close contacts they can turn to when they feel lonely or isolated. Dossy gives them an instant community ready and waiting for them to connect at all times of the day or night,” Ms. Graham told AAA. “The ARIIA funding is helping us build, pilot and validate whether Dossy can in fact reduce feelings of loneliness and social isolation through meaningful video connections.”

The first phase 1 of The Dossy Project – Family Connect, which was completed in December, confirmed that simple technology can help people connect. This second phase kicks off in March. The project is committed to co-design to ensure the technology is valuable and makes a difference to people’s lives, Ms Graham said.

“The University of Melbourne is helping to do this with their pre- and post-evaluations of everyone involved in the pilot, including participants, and their families, volunteers, carers and aged care providers. Anything we develop must be scalable, affordable and reliable. It’s also a way to give volunteers flexibility to give back during the hours they choose,” she said.

This five-minute video below, shown at today’s webinar for the Aged Care Industry IT Council, provides more details on the project.

Round 2 award winners

The full list of award recipients in ARIIA’s second round of awards – and the priorities they address in parentheses – includes:

Dossy Company, Uniting Agewell, University of Melbourne, and Two Bulls, for the Dossy Project – Community Connect. This video app will connect aged care clients with volunteers in an intuitive, meaningful way (social isolation). The University of Sydney, Frank Widdon Masonic Homes of NSW, and Uniting Agewell, for their TOP UP study. These projects aim to improve mobility in aged care by evaluating the effectiveness and acceptability of telehealth physiotherapy programs for mobility and falls in older people (dementia, rehabilitation, recovery and restorative care, and urgent and critical need). The Violet Initiative, Hammond Care, Estia Health and the University of Wollongong for the Violet aged care industry solution. This training program for workforce development includes targeted consumer support to build the well-being and resilience of formal and informal carers of people in the last phase of life and reduce the social isolation for them and their families during this time (social isolation and mental health and well-being). Hammond Care, the University of Sydney and the University of Technology Sydney for their high-quality palliative and end-of-life care education and training program for aged care professionals to achieve a culture of skilled and compassionate care for residents and their families (dementia and urgent and critical need). Flinders University, the Australian Nursing Home Foundation, Chinese Australian Services Society, and the Chinese Welfare Services of SA for their project optimizing support for Chinese carers of people with dementia. This includes a skills training program and the embedding of iSupport into routine aged care (dementia) services. The University of South Australia, Tanunda Lutheran Home, Tyree Foundation Institute of Health Engineering, Pharmaceutical Society of Australia, and Health Care Services, for the ADEPT project. It features a digitally enabled pharmacist service to detect and manage medication harm in residential aged care (urgent and critical need). Dementia Australia, BUPA and Deakin University for their project using technology to transform workforce capability and capacity to improve the quality of care delivered to people living with dementia (dementia, rehabilitation, reablement, and restorative care, and urgent and critical need) . Gretel Analytics, Peninsula Health and Monash University for their development of a toolkit to build social license into the implementation of activity monitoring in residential aged care settings (dementia, rehabilitation, recovery and restorative care, and social isolation). Southern Cross Care, Bond University and Robert Gordon University for their project which aims to enable better discharge pathways for older people to return to the community following short-term restorative programs (rehabilitation, recovery and restorative care). The James Anthony Group and Anglicare SA for CareWindow. The video calling device enables two-way audio communication between those in aged care and their families (dementia, social isolation and mental health and wellbeing). Bay & Basin Community Resources, ExSitu, the University of Wollongong and Carers NSW for developing a blueprint for value-based care plans that address the unique challenges posed by aging people living in regional areas (dementia, rehabilitation, recovery and restorative care, in faced) social isolation, mental health and wellbeing, and urgent and critical need). Next award round open

The ARIIA grant program consists of at least six rounds funded against key sector priorities of focus for the aged care sector that are reviewed each grant round. The five winners in the first round were announced in November. Round 3 recipients will be announced soon.

Round 4 is currently open with applications closing on 17 February 2023. Additional priority areas for this round include:

dementia care restorative care, recovery and rehabilitation social isolation mental health and wellbeing urgent and critical need palliative care and end of life meaningful lifestyle activities that address staff burnout to increase retention of the aged care workforce.

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