Curtin University of Technology has received Federal Government funding to advance its dementia education and research programs through its Centre for Research on Ageing.
Under the Rudd Government’s National Dementia initiative, the Centre for Research on Ageing has received $1.2 million to run its WA Dementia Training Study Centre until 2013.
Professor Barbara Horner, Director of Curtin’s Centre for Research on Ageing, said the additional funds would allow the centre’s successful dementia training program to be expanded.
“We will consolidate previous initiatives in existing undergraduate and postgraduate courses and we can now develop new initiatives,” she said.
“They will feature a range of teaching and learning methods and different delivery models.
“Our goal is to build career pathways and help evolve the roles of health professionals, like nurse practitioners, by building their knowledge and skills to better care for people with dementia.
“We will do this by harnessing the knowledge and experience of expert practitioners across the health professions involved in the care of people with dementia.”
The Rudd Government also announced continuing funding for the three Collaborative Research Centres (CRCs).
Curtin’s Centre for Research on Ageing is a partner with Queensland University of Technology in one of the CRCs which has received $4.1million in funding.
Curtin will contribute to future research in the broad conceptual domains of quality of life and quality of care.
Professor Horner said the additional funding would allow the Centre for Research on Ageing to build on the successes of the past three years and also further consolidates its partnership with Alzheimer’s Australia WA.
“The University is very committed to training and research in ageing and dementia,” she said.
“We are very pleased to receive this funding as it establishes Curtin as a leader in dementia education and research in WA.”
