2023 Strategic Innovation Program recipients

Dr Melanie Hoyle is an early career researcher, research fellow, and lecturer in occupational therapy at The University of Queensland. Her expertise in mixed-methods research is complemented by a growing reputation in co-design for teaching and research. Melanie's passion lies in promoting participation and life satisfaction among people with disabilities, utilising research findings to improve clinical practice and inform policy. Her collaborative approach involves partnering with older people, people with disabilities, and health professionals, spanning hospital and community-based practices to create inclusive and supportive communities. Through her work, Melanie strives to enhance the health, well-being and agency of diverse populations.

CARE-SCI: Co-designing Actionable Recommendations to Enhance support for older adults with Spinal Cord Injury navigating age-specific policy

Spinal cord injury (SCI) marks an abrupt and life-changing transition, with prevalence rising amongst older adults. While this often results in an immense number of challenges, one identified by older patients, families and health teams is inequity created by limitations in age-specific home and community care policies and funding. In Australia, people 65+ can receive government-funded services through My Aged Care (MAC). While different funding types are available, depending on needs and circumstances, there is stark contrast noted when available services/opportunities are compared to those of insurance-based schemes (i.e., NDIS and NIISQ) who provide for younger people and people with catastrophic injuries. To appreciate how differences impact on outcomes, there is a need to explore and understand patient journeys, outcomes, and the intersection with policy and funding from stakeholders' perspectives. This project will employ experience-based co-design and interpretive description to co-design actions to improve practice and advocate for relevant change.

Award: $30,000

Dr Rachel Milte is Matthew Flinders Senior Research Fellow in Health and Social Care Economics at the Caring Futures Institute Flinders University. She is a growing national and emerging international reputation in innovative health services research. She has proven experience in undertaking high quality economic evaluations along-side clinical trials, and analysis of health care expenditure in the context of the Australian health system. Her current research focus is on developing new theoretical frameworks and methods to enable the full inclusion of people living with dementia into person-centred outcome assessment in health services research and enable rigorous and inclusive economic evaluation.

Giving people with dementia a voice in aged care quality assessment

This project aims to develop tools designed to be used by older people in residential aged care to drive inclusivity in reliably self-reporting the quality of care received. This is a significant response to the recommendations of by the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety. It will support the successful implementation of widespread  compulsory reporting of person-reported quality of life and quality of care experience as part of the new suite of Aged Care Quality Indicators, being rolled out from April 2023. Expected outcomes include proof of concept that an accessible-communication version of a validated person-centred quality assessment tool can be developed and applied in aged care. This will provide a practical framework for the more widespread development and application of communication-accessible quality of life and quality of care instruments for use with people with dementia, to allow accurate aged care sector monitoring.

Award: $29,866