This project aimed to (1) produce podcasts about ageing well and dementia prevention for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities; and (2) provide opportunities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander team members to learn new skills around delivering innovative ways of getting health messages into the community.
Funding received from the AAG Research Trust allowed project investigators and members of the Healthy Ageing Research Team (HART) at James Cook University, including Betty Sagigi, Chenoa Wapau, Valda Wallace and Diane Cadet-James, to attend a half day workshop in Cairns with media company, AudioCraft, to learn about podcast production. Topics covered included an overview of the podcast medium, planning a series, running a production, file management, structuring and writing episodes, basic recording and interview skills, publishing and promotion.
Following this, four podcast scripts were developed and recorded by Betty Sagigi and Chenoa Wapau at the Radio 4MW station on Thursday Island. The podcasts include Betty and Chenoa speaking in both English and Torres Strait Creole with scripts written to be easily understood by community members with no expectation that they would have any prior knowledge of dementia.
[Betty Sagigi and Chenoa Wapau]
In total, four podcasts were recorded:
- Understanding Dementia
- Diagnosing Dementia
- Reducing Dementia Risks
- Dementia Support
As part of podcast two, Diagnosing Dementia, Betty interviewed geriatrician, Dr Eddy Strivens, about the diagnostic process.
[Dr Eddy Strivens, Episode 2 Special Guest]
Another Torres Strait team member, Torres Webb (pictured below), recorded instrumental Torres Strait music to go with the podcasts using the recording studios at James Cook University. Once complete, the recordings were sent to AudioCraft for final production support.
When complete, the four podcasts were uploaded to Spotify, Soundcloud and Apple and launched during Dementia Action Week (16th – 22nd September 2024) under the title “Lets Yarn! Ageing well in the Torres Strait podcasts” featuring a logo designed by Torres Strait artist, Jimi Thaiday.
Links to the podcasts were disseminated via email throughout HART, AAG, Queensland Health and James Cook University networks nationally and throughout Queensland and in the Torres Strait, including primary health centres, aged care service providers, Twitter (now X), Facebook and Instagram.
Following distribution, team members were given almost immediate feedback from primary health care centres (PHCCs) in the remote island clusters in the Torres Strait. For example, positive feedback from the St Pauls community in the Near Western cluster of Torres Strait Islands indicated that a family who were having challenges supporting a family member with dementia were very keen to listen to the podcasts. Once they were told that the podcasts had been developed by Torres Strait health workers and designed for Torres Strait communities, the family was very accepting of the messages delivered in the podcasts. Likewise, PHCC staff on Erub, in the Eastern cluster of the Torres Strait, advised that the podcasts had been well received by several local families supporting family members with dementia.
Chenoa and Betty have been invited to speak on Radio 4MW and Torres News has requested an article to be submitted on the podcasts. Team members will continue to consider using podcasts as a future way of disseminating research outcomes, with increased skills and confidence developed as a result of this project.
Betty Sagigi and the entire HART team would like to thank the AAG Research Trust for financially supporting the project.
You can access the entire podcast series on SoundCloud and find out more about the work of HART on their website.