Dear ACT AAG Members and Friends,
We are pleased to share our final updates for 2021:
- AAG Virtual Conference Bursary Award Winner Reports:
- Sally Mordike, PhD Candidate, Charles Sturt University
At the beginning of November, I had the privilege of presenting a paper at the annual AAG conference. Although the conference was conducted online, which meant not meeting people face-to-face or enjoying a trip to the Gold Coast, the access to all presentations, papers, posters and promotors was excellent. The digital format allowed us to move from session to session seamlessly, and being able to revisit presentations after the conference has been invaluable.
My paper, “Homely, but not home: The spiritual meaning of ‘home’ for residents living in aged care,” was well-received, with many thought-provoking and deep questions being posed afterwards. The spiritual perspective is interesting to investigate, as it is very often overlooked in research – in fact, we often feel really uncomfortable talking about spirituality in Australia, as it is often thought to refer only to religion. In essence, however, spirituality is about meaning in life: for many, religious practices are how they express their spirituality, and other people are spiritual but not religious. The meaning of home for the participants in my study was connection, and was a spiritual concept which was deeply personal and vitally important for older people.
I am very grateful to the AAG ACT Division for awarding me a bursary to attend the online conference this year. I am continuing the research into the meaning of home through my PhD studies into ‘homefulness’ and the meaning of home for older people living with dementia. I look forward to sharing the findings with you in the future!
- Tergel Namsari, PhD Student, Australian National University
I am greatly honoured for the opportunity to present at the 54th AAG conference. This opportunity greatly helped me to share my research results, communicate with fellow early career researchers and listen to experts in the field thus, widening my perspective and fuelling my interest in research further. Our research focused on studying the relationship sleep and brain health at midlife. We found that poorer sleep quality (<6 hours/day, >9 hours/day and daytime dozing) at midlife was associated with lower brain health. Therefore, we concluded that midlife sleep quality could be an important target to improve brain health and cognitive function into old age. I greatly appreciate the efforts of Australian Association of Gerontology for organising an outstanding conference that has provided similar opportunities like mine to many others.
- Yushan Zou, PhD Candidate, University of Canberra
Thank you very much for your support to attend the AAG conference. I learnt a lot from other speakers and it was quite inspirational to me. As a PhD Candidate who is doing interdisciplinary research that crosses design and health, it was very valuable and a fantastic experience for me. I learnt a lot not only from health researchers, but also from other researchers who have designed interventions for older people. During the online conference, I had a chat with an expert who had a lot of publications in my research field. I also attend ‘lunch with the stars’ program and spoke with a gerontological physiotherapist, he gave me suggestions for my PhD research. In all, thanks, AAG for organising this amazing event!
- AAG ACT Committee Update:
- We are very lucky to have Dr Diane Hosking join the AAG ACT committee in 2022:
Diane Hosking is the senior research officer at National Seniors Australia where she manages the organisation’s research program. Diane returned to tertiary study as a mature age student and did her PhD in Psychology at the University of Adelaide and CSIRO Human Nutrition. She moved to Canberra to take up a post-doc position at the Centre for Research into Ageing Health and Wellbeing at ANU where she worked on a number of projects focused on the outcomes and prevention of cognitive decline and dementia. Diane was delighted to join the team at National Seniors in 2019 and is enjoying the opportunity to contribute across research, advocacy and policy work.
- Assistance needed:
- Former AAG ACT Committee Chair is seeking participants on behalf of an Honours student she is supervising.
- Please share the flyer with your networks, and please consider participating in the research, if:
- You are an RN or EN and have ever participated in an invasive procedure (e.g. IVC, IDC, venepuncture) with a person with cognitive impairment
- Our friends at NSW Health and Warrigal Care are seeking volunteers to work with people with dementia or delirium:
- Events in 2021:
- While 2021 was impacted by COVID-19, we were able to hold two events:
- We had an amazing seminar on dementia and delirium organised by Dr Michael Kang – we are working to make this seminar available for members to view online.
- When the lockdown finished, ECR and Student members were able to get together and share their progress over coffee. We hope to continue these informal meetings in 2022:
- Send us your news, journal articles or suggestions for 2022 by replying to this email!
We would like to wish you a safe Christmas and a prosperous New Year, and thank you for your support in 2021! COVID willing, we will be back in full force in 2022!
Warm Regards,
ACT AAG Committee