Thursday Three - 23 January 2025 

  • Falls prevention gets airtime on ABC Radio
  • Roadmap for Healthy Ageing Across the Life Course: 2024-2030
  • Australasian Journal on Ageing - December Issue

Falls prevention gets airtime on ABC Radio

On Monday, 14th January, Professor Tracy Comans, AAG member and Director, National Ageing Research Institute (NARI), caught up with ABC Radio 'Sydney Mornings' presenter James O'Loghlin to discuss #fallsprevention. 

Falls are the leading cause of injury for older people, often leading to hospitalisation, ongoing pain, loss of mobility and/or confidence. Not surprising, falls prevention is a hot topic for AAG member researchers and practitioners.
 
The #AAGResearchTrust is pleased to support innovative research in falls prevention, including:

Dr Jacqueline Francis-Coad (2020 Hal Kendig Research Development Program awardee): Co-designing and evaluating fall prevention education informed by community dwelling older people with dementia and their caregivers: A feasibility study. 

You can discover how the Research Trust can support you and your research on the AAG Research Trust webpage. We look forward to providing full details regarding the 2025 grants program in the coming weeks. 

You can also check out Professor Comans' talk with the ABC here (starting from the 1:04:16 mark), or learn more about NARI's research into falls prevention, including available education and training, at https://www.nari.net.au/.

Roadmap for Healthy Ageing Across the Life Course: 2024-2030

In the latter half of 2024, British Physician and Secretary General's Special Envoy on Ageing Well, Dame Carol Black, released a report titled "Ageing Well in the Commonwealth - A Roadmap for Healthy Ageing Across the Life Course: 2024-2030."

Dame Black describes the report as "a living and working guide aiming to highlight the critical importance of healthy ageing to the governments and people of member countries. The report puts forward a "roadmap" of suggested objectives and key actions for policymakers to consider when formulating national policy on healthy ageing according to their country's particular circumstances."

The document builds on the work of the WHO, the National Academy of Medicine and AAG partner CommonAge. You can find out more and access the roadmap here.

Australasian Journal on Ageing - December Issue 

The December issue of #AJA features a review article by #AAG member, Adrienne Matthys, and her colleagues at Charles Sturt University, which critically examines the representation of Australians living with dementia in research on voluntary assisted dying (VAD). The findings suggest that health-care practitioners represent the dominant voices in this context, while those living with dementia are virtually unrepresented.

In the Invited Editorial, Ian Yates draws upon his extensive leadership in the aged care sector to reflect on key accomplishments and issues in Australia during the last 10 to 15 years. Other topics focus on social isolation and mental health, falls, mobility, and more, including building the aged care workforce, engaging the oldest-old in geriatric research, a consumer-focused response to frailty, and osteopathic care in facilities.
 
The complete December issue can be accessed (subject to membership) at: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/17416612/current.

Please note: The December issue is the last curated issue prior to the journal's transition to continuous publication online. From 2025, articles will be automatically published to an Issue as soon as they are ready and without the need to be listed as "early view". This will allow the final version of the article to be published immediately. AJA will continue to publish the full range of article types (including editorials), but they will appear in the Issue in the order of publication. AJA will still publish four Issues a year, with articles populated to an Issue until the cut-off date.