WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.520 Welcome to this session of the Festival of Ideas. 2 00:00:03.540 --> 00:00:04.440 I'm Susan Hillier. 3 00:00:04.700 --> 00:00:07.840 I'm the Dean for Research at the University of South Australia 4 00:00:07.840 --> 00:00:11.460 and I'm delighted to welcome you to this session this afternoon 5 00:00:11.460 --> 00:00:13.700 on a beautiful Adelaide winter's day. 6 00:00:13.980 --> 00:00:17.060 I think being in a warm place with a nice gentle sun 7 00:00:17.060 --> 00:00:21.140 is a great way to foster new ideas and consolidate old ones. 8 00:00:22.400 --> 00:00:25.560 So the topic of this session is Forget Me Not 9 00:00:25.560 --> 00:00:33.260 and I think dementia and ageing are something that preoccupies a lot of us 10 00:00:33.260 --> 00:00:36.440 and I'm looking around to see what the demographic of the audience is 11 00:00:36.440 --> 00:00:38.800 to see how preoccupied you might be. 12 00:00:39.940 --> 00:00:43.020 Certainly my peers, we are very preoccupied with ageing 13 00:00:43.020 --> 00:00:45.080 and every time we forget something we think, 14 00:00:45.080 --> 00:00:49.420 is this going to herald some kind of degenerative condition? 15 00:00:50.180 --> 00:00:53.780 So maybe you identify with that, maybe it's just me and my friends. 16 00:00:54.600 --> 00:00:55.080 However. 17 00:00:55.560 --> 00:00:58.500 We're here today to hear something that's a little bit more inspiring 18 00:00:58.500 --> 00:01:01.660 than perhaps what we're projecting from a fear point of view. 19 00:01:03.000 --> 00:01:06.800 It gives me great pleasure to introduce Dr Ashley Smith 20 00:01:06.800 --> 00:01:09.820 who's going to be talking about this topic in her work. 21 00:01:10.260 --> 00:01:14.860 Ash works in the Division of Health Sciences at the University of South Australia 22 00:01:14.860 --> 00:01:15.840 so I know her well. 23 00:01:16.600 --> 00:01:21.820 She's an NHMRC ARC Research Fellow funded on a dementia fellowship. 24 00:01:22.580 --> 00:01:25.540 She's a member of the Alliance for Research and Education 25 00:01:25.560 --> 00:01:28.880 and she's been doing research into exercise, nutrition and activity. 26 00:01:29.140 --> 00:01:34.020 I think we call it ARENA, which is one of our research concentrations in ESA. 27 00:01:35.600 --> 00:01:41.480 She positions her research sort of at the intersection between three main areas, 28 00:01:41.640 --> 00:01:44.480 neuroscience, cognitive ageing and exercise 29 00:01:44.480 --> 00:01:48.240 and you'll hear that influence coming out in her presentation today. 30 00:01:48.580 --> 00:01:51.000 She's also a member of the Australian Brain Alliance 31 00:01:51.000 --> 00:01:54.160 and various other sorts of committees looking at research 32 00:01:55.560 --> 00:01:56.040 into the brain. 33 00:01:56.660 --> 00:02:01.040 And this project shows a collaboration where Ash has been working 34 00:02:01.040 --> 00:02:08.120 with the City of Unley Council, Unley Primary School and ECH, 35 00:02:08.500 --> 00:02:11.000 one of our aged care providers here in South Australia. 36 00:02:11.200 --> 00:02:13.800 And this project has been called Forget Me Not. 37 00:02:14.000 --> 00:02:18.220 So today Ash is going to describe the project to us 38 00:02:18.220 --> 00:02:22.820 and how it came to be, what it involves, this integration, 39 00:02:24.060 --> 00:02:25.500 intergenerational education project. 40 00:02:25.560 --> 00:02:26.380 And we're going to talk about the relationship between children 41 00:02:26.380 --> 00:02:29.240 at Unley Primary School and clients of ECH. 42 00:02:29.960 --> 00:02:32.160 So I think that's all that I need to say. 43 00:02:32.380 --> 00:02:34.060 I'm delighted to present Ash to you. 44 00:02:34.240 --> 00:02:36.040 Ash will talk for about 30 minutes 45 00:02:36.040 --> 00:02:38.220 and then we'll have plenty of time for questions. 46 00:02:38.660 --> 00:02:41.100 So keep your questions, write them down 47 00:02:41.100 --> 00:02:43.360 and then we'll have a great discussion afterwards. 48 00:02:44.060 --> 00:02:44.960 Thanks for your attention. 49 00:02:49.260 --> 00:02:51.720 Thank you so much for that introduction, Susan. 50 00:02:52.100 --> 00:02:53.500 I just want to... 51 00:02:53.500 --> 00:02:53.940 Can you... 52 00:02:53.940 --> 00:02:54.840 Can't hear me? 53 00:02:54.920 --> 00:02:55.360 Can you hear me? 54 00:02:55.360 --> 00:02:55.580 Hang on. 55 00:02:55.620 --> 00:02:56.800 Let me go a little bit closer. 56 00:02:56.980 --> 00:02:57.660 I don't want to... 57 00:02:58.220 --> 00:02:59.460 I'll just shift this up. 58 00:03:00.020 --> 00:03:01.880 Try not to put it in my chin. 59 00:03:02.060 --> 00:03:02.780 Is that better? 60 00:03:03.060 --> 00:03:03.460 Better? 61 00:03:03.620 --> 00:03:03.880 Yeah? 62 00:03:04.020 --> 00:03:04.880 Okay, cool. 63 00:03:05.600 --> 00:03:07.980 Let me know if at any point you can't hear me. 64 00:03:08.060 --> 00:03:09.020 I'll try and talk loud. 65 00:03:09.540 --> 00:03:12.360 I just want to take this opportunity to thank the festival. 66 00:03:13.180 --> 00:03:16.060 It's such a fabulous event, a free event, 67 00:03:16.160 --> 00:03:19.560 and it's just fantastic to give me the opportunity 68 00:03:19.560 --> 00:03:21.980 to talk to you a little bit about a program 69 00:03:22.560 --> 00:03:25.340 where we're trying to optimise dementia-friendly communities. 70 00:03:25.360 --> 00:03:28.620 As Susan mentioned, my name is Ashley Smith. 71 00:03:28.880 --> 00:03:31.260 The research I normally conduct 72 00:03:31.260 --> 00:03:34.040 is around neurophysiological brain changes 73 00:03:34.040 --> 00:03:35.340 that occur with ageing, 74 00:03:35.360 --> 00:03:38.560 and in particular looking at people 75 00:03:38.560 --> 00:03:40.740 with heightened risk factors for dementia. 76 00:03:41.660 --> 00:03:44.820 However, Forget Me Not is quite a different project. 77 00:03:46.360 --> 00:03:49.140 In brief, Forget Me Not is an eight-week 78 00:03:49.140 --> 00:03:51.700 dementia education program 79 00:03:51.700 --> 00:03:55.340 that we run for children in year four and five. 80 00:03:55.340 --> 00:03:55.800 It's a program that we do at the University of Australia 81 00:03:55.800 --> 00:03:56.680 at Unley Primary School. 82 00:03:57.020 --> 00:04:00.260 As a part of that program, they also got the opportunity 83 00:04:00.260 --> 00:04:02.680 to interact with older clients at ECH, 84 00:04:03.580 --> 00:04:05.940 many of whom have a dementia diagnosis. 85 00:04:07.000 --> 00:04:11.760 One key difference of this program to any other research program 86 00:04:11.760 --> 00:04:14.260 that I've been involved in in the past is, 87 00:04:14.300 --> 00:04:16.560 firstly, it was not conducted in a lab. 88 00:04:16.840 --> 00:04:19.560 Everything else I have done has been conducted in a lab, 89 00:04:19.660 --> 00:04:22.680 and this particular program was conducted in community. 90 00:04:24.080 --> 00:04:25.320 Secondly, it was not conducted in a lab. 91 00:04:25.320 --> 00:04:28.840 This program was entirely driven by our end users. 92 00:04:30.520 --> 00:04:33.980 I'm lucky enough to stand here and talk to you about this program, 93 00:04:34.160 --> 00:04:37.040 but it was co-designed with the City of Unley Council, 94 00:04:37.360 --> 00:04:40.060 with ECH, with Unley Primary School, 95 00:04:40.200 --> 00:04:43.820 and it was funded through a grant from Office for the Ageing 96 00:04:43.820 --> 00:04:47.020 that was awarded to the City of Unley Council 97 00:04:47.020 --> 00:04:49.200 to actually implement the program. 98 00:04:49.640 --> 00:04:53.760 I feel really lucky to be able to talk to you about this today. 99 00:04:54.080 --> 00:04:55.180 But before we go on, 100 00:04:55.320 --> 00:04:57.200 I go any further and talk a little bit about, 101 00:04:57.260 --> 00:04:59.520 forget me not, I need to talk about our large team, 102 00:04:59.620 --> 00:05:01.940 because it's a lot of people who've been involved in this program. 103 00:05:02.680 --> 00:05:04.080 So, as I mentioned, at UniSA, 104 00:05:04.160 --> 00:05:06.480 we're lucky enough to be able to evaluate the program, 105 00:05:07.000 --> 00:05:09.860 and that team, it started with myself. 106 00:05:10.080 --> 00:05:11.700 I've got a little bit of a squished photo there. 107 00:05:11.780 --> 00:05:12.560 Apologies for that. 108 00:05:13.060 --> 00:05:14.940 Hannah Keege and Tobias Loescher. 109 00:05:15.300 --> 00:05:18.560 We really started this work with the City of Unley Council. 110 00:05:19.560 --> 00:05:24.700 We also get a lot of advice from Professor Julie Ratcliffe 111 00:05:24.700 --> 00:05:25.300 and Rachel Gould. 112 00:05:25.320 --> 00:05:25.740 They're from the University of Melbourne, 113 00:05:25.740 --> 00:05:25.960 and they're from the University of Melbourne, 114 00:05:25.960 --> 00:05:27.980 and they advise us on health economics 115 00:05:27.980 --> 00:05:30.340 and the dollar value of what we're doing. 116 00:05:30.660 --> 00:05:33.060 And then, of course, there's the UniSA team 117 00:05:33.060 --> 00:05:34.540 that do the majority of the work. 118 00:05:35.120 --> 00:05:37.900 So, our project manager, Melissa Hull, 119 00:05:38.000 --> 00:05:41.260 who, without Melissa, we would not have a Forget Me Not project, 120 00:05:41.400 --> 00:05:43.120 and our students. 121 00:05:43.160 --> 00:05:45.280 So, we have Sam Lay and Georgie Cam, 122 00:05:45.480 --> 00:05:49.260 who are our honours students at the University of South Australia, 123 00:05:49.360 --> 00:05:50.340 the psychology students. 124 00:05:50.340 --> 00:05:54.140 And we also had an education summer scholar, Madison Ellis, 125 00:05:54.820 --> 00:05:57.760 who drew a lot of the curriculum links together 126 00:05:57.760 --> 00:05:59.240 for the educational component. 127 00:05:59.860 --> 00:06:02.640 Our partners at Unley Council, 128 00:06:03.100 --> 00:06:07.000 Alyssa Hill essentially helped roll out the program. 129 00:06:07.200 --> 00:06:10.160 So, she organised the bus from the school to ECH. 130 00:06:10.960 --> 00:06:14.020 She did a lot of the background work for the project. 131 00:06:14.740 --> 00:06:17.600 Our fabulous team at Unley Primary School, 132 00:06:17.700 --> 00:06:20.320 so the Year 4-5 teachers, Sarah, Tegan and Dan, 133 00:06:20.340 --> 00:06:23.960 and our principal at Unley Primary School, Peter, 134 00:06:24.180 --> 00:06:26.140 who essentially, they said, 135 00:06:26.240 --> 00:06:30.320 take our 90 Year 4-5 students and teach them about dementia. 136 00:06:30.720 --> 00:06:34.980 And that's not something that I'd expected a primary school would do. 137 00:06:35.040 --> 00:06:36.560 I thought it would be a lot harder to go, 138 00:06:36.680 --> 00:06:39.280 I'd like to come in and teach the students, 139 00:06:39.380 --> 00:06:41.680 but they've been fantastic to work with. 140 00:06:41.980 --> 00:06:46.860 At ECH, we have Esther, Eduardo, Susie, Karina and Dean, 141 00:06:46.980 --> 00:06:50.180 and they essentially set up with their clients at ECH, 142 00:06:50.180 --> 00:06:52.300 the intergenerational component. 143 00:06:52.580 --> 00:06:55.380 So, it was developed out there. 144 00:06:55.980 --> 00:06:59.920 And then, as I'll talk about in a little while, 145 00:07:00.060 --> 00:07:03.720 we were really fortunate to be able to get some further expertise 146 00:07:03.720 --> 00:07:09.260 on dementia education from a collaborator that we made 147 00:07:09.260 --> 00:07:12.660 through the University of New South Wales, Dr Jess Baker. 148 00:07:13.120 --> 00:07:15.740 So, I just wanted to get that out of the way 149 00:07:15.740 --> 00:07:18.280 and talk about the people who were involved in this project 150 00:07:18.280 --> 00:07:19.860 before I talk about the project. 151 00:07:20.180 --> 00:07:24.140 So, Forget Me Not was very different. 152 00:07:24.320 --> 00:07:27.580 When you're a researcher, you read the literature, 153 00:07:27.880 --> 00:07:29.620 you come up with a hypothesis, 154 00:07:29.940 --> 00:07:33.080 you find gaps in the literature, you come up with a hypothesis, 155 00:07:33.440 --> 00:07:35.800 you design a study and you run the study. 156 00:07:35.960 --> 00:07:38.280 This is not how Forget Me Not worked. 157 00:07:39.240 --> 00:07:44.440 So, we were approached in June 2016 by the City of Unley Council, 158 00:07:45.060 --> 00:07:48.740 who had just developed an age-friendly city strategy. 159 00:07:50.180 --> 00:07:51.700 And it was a very good strategy. 160 00:07:52.100 --> 00:07:54.600 But they approached myself, Hannah and Toby, 161 00:07:54.880 --> 00:07:58.640 who are all dementia researchers, and they wanted to know, 162 00:07:58.720 --> 00:08:02.800 is our age-friendly city strategy also dementia-friendly? 163 00:08:03.100 --> 00:08:04.780 Are they one and the same, 164 00:08:04.900 --> 00:08:07.640 or are there gaps and opportunities for research? 165 00:08:08.240 --> 00:08:11.580 So, between June 2016 and June 2017, 166 00:08:12.480 --> 00:08:16.460 we ran a scoping review and produced a consultation paper 167 00:08:17.080 --> 00:08:18.760 for the City of Unley Council, 168 00:08:18.760 --> 00:08:22.300 basically drawing comparisons between their current strategy 169 00:08:22.300 --> 00:08:25.920 and other dementia-friendly city strategies around the world. 170 00:08:26.160 --> 00:08:29.060 And we provided some opportunities for research 171 00:08:29.060 --> 00:08:33.620 and some recommendations on where the strategy could be tweaked. 172 00:08:33.920 --> 00:08:38.740 So, one of the papers that we found during our scoping review 173 00:08:38.740 --> 00:08:40.520 was out of the UK. 174 00:08:41.200 --> 00:08:44.620 And it was a paper that had looked at children and adolescents 175 00:08:44.620 --> 00:08:46.640 and it had found that children and adolescents 176 00:08:46.640 --> 00:08:48.300 often have limited knowledge 177 00:08:48.760 --> 00:08:52.860 and also potentially poor attitudes towards people living with dementia. 178 00:08:53.440 --> 00:08:56.920 And so, our recommendation to the City of Unley was, 179 00:08:56.980 --> 00:09:00.620 wouldn't it be great if you could increase intergenerational relationships 180 00:09:00.620 --> 00:09:05.640 in your council area by an intergenerational program 181 00:09:05.640 --> 00:09:08.540 and a dementia education program in your area? 182 00:09:08.800 --> 00:09:12.260 And so, from there, Unley put together a grant 183 00:09:12.260 --> 00:09:17.480 and submitted a grant to a grant scheme that was open to councils 184 00:09:17.480 --> 00:09:18.740 through Office for the Dementia. 185 00:09:18.760 --> 00:09:18.860 And we were able to do that. 186 00:09:18.860 --> 00:09:19.360 And we were able to do that through the Aging. 187 00:09:19.880 --> 00:09:22.860 And they were awarded some money 188 00:09:22.860 --> 00:09:26.280 to actually run an intergenerational program 189 00:09:26.280 --> 00:09:29.800 with a dementia education program embedded in it. 190 00:09:30.040 --> 00:09:33.380 After they were successful, they then reapproached us 191 00:09:33.380 --> 00:09:35.440 and they said, can you evaluate this for us? 192 00:09:36.140 --> 00:09:41.420 And so, we were really keen to evaluate the project, of course, 193 00:09:41.560 --> 00:09:44.100 but we needed some further funding 194 00:09:44.100 --> 00:09:46.620 and we were lucky enough in October last year 195 00:09:46.620 --> 00:09:48.740 to secure some extra funding 196 00:09:48.760 --> 00:09:53.200 funding through an internal scheme, internal funding scheme at the University of South 197 00:09:53.200 --> 00:09:59.300 Australia, which provides money for grants around the research themes at the university, 198 00:10:00.240 --> 00:10:04.420 of which ageing is a research theme at the university. 199 00:10:05.620 --> 00:10:07.520 So that occurred in October last year. 200 00:10:08.780 --> 00:10:15.580 And then Unley worked really quickly to find a school partnership and to find an aged care 201 00:10:15.580 --> 00:10:16.560 facility partnership. 202 00:10:16.560 --> 00:10:21.760 And it was decided that they wanted this program rolled out in term one, 2018. 203 00:10:22.520 --> 00:10:28.540 And for those of you who work in research, three months is not a long time to set up 204 00:10:28.540 --> 00:10:33.800 a research project, particularly one where we didn't have educational materials, one 205 00:10:33.800 --> 00:10:37.220 where we didn't know what the intergenerational program was going to look like. 206 00:10:38.620 --> 00:10:41.240 And we were neuroscientists. 207 00:10:41.540 --> 00:10:46.540 So we didn't feel like we were evaluation researchers at the time. 208 00:10:47.500 --> 00:10:51.000 But we were just, I guess there was a little bit of luck involved. 209 00:10:51.260 --> 00:10:59.580 But yeah, so in the three months between October 2017 and December 2017, we were lucky enough 210 00:10:59.580 --> 00:11:04.540 to get in touch with Jess Baker, who'd done a lot of work around the educational content. 211 00:11:05.420 --> 00:11:08.100 We appointed three summer scholars over the summer. 212 00:11:09.160 --> 00:11:13.500 Two of them worked on writing an ethics application very quickly, turning that around. 213 00:11:13.700 --> 00:11:15.840 And one of them was from the School of Education. 214 00:11:15.840 --> 00:11:18.460 She's a third year education student. 215 00:11:18.760 --> 00:11:24.980 And she looked at taking Jess's educational content, which was designed for New South 216 00:11:24.980 --> 00:11:29.280 Wales schools, and then drawing curriculum links with the South Australian curriculum, 217 00:11:30.620 --> 00:11:35.460 writing lesson plans, writing unit plans, and creating some educational resources. 218 00:11:36.040 --> 00:11:41.660 So it was quite amazing that we were able to pull this all together in three months. 219 00:11:41.940 --> 00:11:45.820 So as I mentioned, we didn't start from scratch. 220 00:11:45.820 --> 00:11:47.280 We got to rough rough with the educational materials. 221 00:11:48.100 --> 00:11:52.000 And there's another really good program that's been running for a number of years out of 222 00:11:52.000 --> 00:11:54.720 the University of New South Wales called Kids for Dementia. 223 00:11:55.380 --> 00:11:58.880 In that program, they don't have an intergenerational experience. 224 00:11:59.780 --> 00:12:01.520 It's a teacher-led program. 225 00:12:01.900 --> 00:12:08.880 So primary school teachers can contact Jess and her team if they want to teach dementia 226 00:12:08.880 --> 00:12:13.840 education to year, I think that's year four, five students they also focus on. 227 00:12:14.000 --> 00:12:14.080 Yeah. 228 00:12:15.820 --> 00:12:20.400 resources and some unit plans to do that. And then as a part of that study Jess 229 00:12:20.400 --> 00:12:25.100 evaluates changing knowledge and attitudes towards dementia in the 230 00:12:25.100 --> 00:12:33.060 students. But what Madison did, our Education Summer Scholar, she took 231 00:12:33.060 --> 00:12:37.820 Jess's program and she drew the curriculum links to South Australia. We 232 00:12:37.820 --> 00:12:42.720 learnt really quickly that in order to make this palatable for teachers who 233 00:12:42.720 --> 00:12:47.220 are already really busy people, we wanted to make sure that we'd set up 234 00:12:47.220 --> 00:12:53.600 content descriptors and summative marking rubrics in case they wanted to 235 00:12:53.600 --> 00:12:59.340 be able to evaluate their students knowledge across the program. So what did 236 00:12:59.340 --> 00:13:03.500 our classroom lessons look like? As I mentioned it was an eight-week program. 237 00:13:03.940 --> 00:13:09.840 We delivered one lesson a week to the three year four five classes at Unley 238 00:13:09.840 --> 00:13:12.580 Primary School and we did this in a back-to-back way. 239 00:13:12.580 --> 00:13:16.400 So Tuesday mornings at nine o'clock we taught the first class, 45 minutes later 240 00:13:16.400 --> 00:13:20.120 we taught the second class and then then the third class and we were in and out 241 00:13:20.660 --> 00:13:26.320 by recess time. Each of the lessons had a different theme. So we started with what 242 00:13:26.320 --> 00:13:30.460 ifs dementia and we taught the kids what dementia was and then we talked about 243 00:13:30.460 --> 00:13:35.060 communication in another lesson and we covered different topics. So we talked 244 00:13:35.060 --> 00:13:40.600 about how does it feel to have dementia, what causes dementia. We learned that 245 00:13:40.600 --> 00:13:42.500 well the students learned very quickly 246 00:13:42.500 --> 00:13:47.920 that you can't catch dementia. We talked about how we can keep our brains healthy 247 00:13:47.920 --> 00:13:54.240 and then we also talked about what happens towards the end of life in 248 00:13:54.240 --> 00:14:00.920 someone living with dementia as they move into an aged care facility. All of 249 00:14:00.920 --> 00:14:05.820 these lessons were based around the kids for dementia project which had been 250 00:14:05.820 --> 00:14:10.020 designed with older adults living with dementia as well as some school teachers. 251 00:14:10.600 --> 00:14:12.240 And they also followed a 252 00:14:12.500 --> 00:14:19.120 theme. So each lesson had a video and we learnt about Ruby and Ollie whose pops 253 00:14:19.120 --> 00:14:23.220 had just been diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia and we used that 254 00:14:23.220 --> 00:14:27.280 theme to guide the lessons and the journey that Ollie and Ruby were having 255 00:14:27.280 --> 00:14:37.000 with their pops. So the program started week two, term one in February and about 256 00:14:37.000 --> 00:14:41.320 a week before that we appointed a project manager and then we just got in 257 00:14:41.320 --> 00:14:42.340 and ran the project. 258 00:14:42.500 --> 00:14:50.100 So all 90 children had eight weeks of lessons and then from week three of the program two 259 00:14:50.100 --> 00:14:54.660 of the three classes also went and had an intergenerational experience. The other class 260 00:14:54.660 --> 00:14:57.660 didn't get that experience until after the program had finished. 261 00:14:58.160 --> 00:15:05.020 So our study aims were to firstly evaluate the change in knowledge of and attitudes towards 262 00:15:05.020 --> 00:15:10.400 dementia in the children and to do this we used a questionnaire that Jess's team had 263 00:15:10.400 --> 00:15:11.940 devised and validated. 264 00:15:12.520 --> 00:15:17.720 Secondly we wanted to explore engagement in the program as well as change in wellbeing 265 00:15:17.720 --> 00:15:23.340 and quality of life in the older participants. We wanted to actually, because we were delivering 266 00:15:23.340 --> 00:15:27.580 the lessons, so all of the lessons were delivered by dementia researchers from the University 267 00:15:27.580 --> 00:15:33.020 of South Australia. The teachers just provided some behavioural management in the class, 268 00:15:33.180 --> 00:15:34.500 not that they really needed to. 269 00:15:35.320 --> 00:15:39.820 But our third aim was to evaluate the change in knowledge of and attitudes towards dementia 270 00:15:39.820 --> 00:15:40.920 in the teachers. 271 00:15:41.140 --> 00:15:42.480 And also to receive feedback from the teachers. So we wanted to do a series of lectures that 272 00:15:42.480 --> 00:15:42.680 we would do in the future. 273 00:15:42.680 --> 00:15:43.820 So we wanted to do a series of lectures that would provide feedback from the teachers post 274 00:15:43.820 --> 00:15:49.980 intervention on how we could roll this program out more sustainably in the future. 275 00:15:50.260 --> 00:15:55.140 And then fourthly, because we didn't want to just make this one program, we wanted to 276 00:15:55.140 --> 00:16:00.740 be able to roll this out, we also aimed to run an economic evaluation of the program. 277 00:16:01.020 --> 00:16:06.000 So we detailed the costs of how much it costs to develop the program and then also we're 278 00:16:06.000 --> 00:16:12.200 in the process of detailing how much it costs to administer the program once all of the 279 00:16:12.200 --> 00:16:13.400 materials are in place. 280 00:16:13.720 --> 00:16:18.840 And through that economic evaluation we measured outcomes such as quality of life and wellbeing 281 00:16:18.840 --> 00:16:20.560 in the children as well. 282 00:16:20.800 --> 00:16:28.760 Okay, so this is what some of our lessons looked like. There was some standard classroom 283 00:16:28.760 --> 00:16:33.360 activities, so some mind mapping activities. We had some group activities, so we played 284 00:16:33.360 --> 00:16:42.180 some memory games. We did some smaller group activities. We had a dementia question. We 285 00:16:42.200 --> 00:16:46.820 had a question board, so students could add questions that they wanted answered about 286 00:16:46.820 --> 00:16:53.840 dementia. If they didn't feel comfortable to ask us directly during class, they could 287 00:16:53.840 --> 00:16:57.820 add it to the question board. And then we made sure each week we revisited that question 288 00:16:57.820 --> 00:17:02.920 board so that we could, throughout the program, provide the answers that they were interested 289 00:17:02.920 --> 00:17:03.280 in. 290 00:17:03.700 --> 00:17:12.180 We also, in week seven or week eight of the program, we got a geriatrician out to do some 291 00:17:12.200 --> 00:17:16.080 of the questions and answers. We had a question and answer session with the kids and that 292 00:17:16.080 --> 00:17:22.840 was fantastic. He made comments like, I didn't realise children knew so much about dementia 293 00:17:22.840 --> 00:17:27.520 and they were asking about different types of dementia and different areas of the brain 294 00:17:27.520 --> 00:17:34.300 that are affected in different types of dementia. So that was really beneficial. So as I said, 295 00:17:34.400 --> 00:17:40.560 from week three of the program, two of the three classes also then started going on weekly 296 00:17:40.560 --> 00:17:41.620 excursions. 297 00:17:45.680 --> 00:17:57.840 And if you have got experience, if you have got experience, if you have got experience 298 00:17:57.840 --> 00:17:58.520 experience, if you have got experience, if you have got experience, if you have got experience, 299 00:17:58.520 --> 00:18:00.460 if you have got experience, if you have got experience, if you have got experience, if 300 00:18:00.460 --> 00:18:06.120 you have got experience, if you have got experience, if you have got experience, if you have got 301 00:18:06.120 --> 00:18:10.740 experience, if you have got experience, if you have got experience, if you have got experience, 302 00:18:10.740 --> 00:18:15.140 discussions between the younger generation and the older generation. 303 00:18:15.520 --> 00:18:20.600 So people could have conversations around how do you buy your food? 304 00:18:20.740 --> 00:18:23.920 Does mum do it on the internet and it arrives in the Coles truck? 305 00:18:24.180 --> 00:18:31.980 How did an older person buy their food when they were 10 in year five? 306 00:18:32.360 --> 00:18:37.280 We also set up a variety of different art and craft and gardening activities. 307 00:18:37.280 --> 00:18:44.940 So we made some boomerang bags, we dyed fabric, we used cyanotyping technique which was really cool. 308 00:18:45.560 --> 00:18:47.980 And kids had never really seen that. 309 00:18:48.080 --> 00:18:58.120 Their photos are digital photos but we exposed this fabric out in the sun and it was like magic for some of the children. 310 00:18:59.100 --> 00:19:04.900 So we made bags, we potted plants, we did some flower arranging. 311 00:19:05.160 --> 00:19:07.260 We also had some activities. 312 00:19:07.280 --> 00:19:10.900 We had some activities that we hadn't intended to set up. 313 00:19:11.060 --> 00:19:16.220 So there was a pool table there and one of the older gentlemen at ECH is an avid pool player. 314 00:19:17.060 --> 00:19:27.860 And he has I think eight grandchildren and he's always taught all of his grandchildren the rules of pool and the rules of how to play proper snooker. 315 00:19:28.340 --> 00:19:36.480 So the first session we had brought the children in, they all sat on the floor and we were talking to them about the different activities. 316 00:19:37.280 --> 00:19:42.300 And this gentleman just stands up and he gets his pool cue and he goes, I'll be at the pool table. 317 00:19:42.780 --> 00:19:46.240 And very quickly 15 children were like, I'm at the pool table. 318 00:19:46.980 --> 00:19:50.260 And it became this, it was a beautiful moment. 319 00:19:50.340 --> 00:19:55.740 I've got a photo of it but you can't really judge how beautiful it is from the photo. 320 00:19:55.900 --> 00:19:58.480 But every week everyone's like, I want to play pool. 321 00:19:58.760 --> 00:20:00.400 Let me play pool. 322 00:20:01.220 --> 00:20:03.400 And that was not something that we'd set up. 323 00:20:03.580 --> 00:20:07.260 So it was just this really organic, exciting relationship that the children had. 324 00:20:07.260 --> 00:20:08.460 And it developed really early on. 325 00:20:08.880 --> 00:20:11.360 So this is some photos from the excursion. 326 00:20:11.360 --> 00:20:15.060 So this is teaching some of the kids to play pool. 327 00:20:16.140 --> 00:20:18.160 Doing some flower arranging. 328 00:20:19.260 --> 00:20:24.380 This is the pool table that became pretty famous across the intervention. 329 00:20:24.920 --> 00:20:28.980 We also really tried to involve parents in the program. 330 00:20:29.880 --> 00:20:34.500 Because we thought, well children might go home and ask questions about dementia. 331 00:20:34.700 --> 00:20:36.880 And parents may not know the answers. 332 00:20:37.260 --> 00:20:42.760 And so I'm not sure how many in the room have children school age. 333 00:20:42.860 --> 00:20:45.300 I've got two boys who just started school this year. 334 00:20:45.440 --> 00:20:51.720 And one really cool thing about school these days that we didn't have when I was at school is this app called Seesaw. 335 00:20:52.040 --> 00:20:57.460 And so every couple of days we get photos of what our kids are doing at school. 336 00:20:57.700 --> 00:21:01.480 And we hear about the monarch butterfly that's gone into a chrysalis. 337 00:21:01.480 --> 00:21:03.980 Which my children are obsessed with. 338 00:21:04.300 --> 00:21:06.660 Sorry, the caterpillar to the chrysalis to the butterfly. 339 00:21:06.660 --> 00:21:08.120 And they're obsessed with that. 340 00:21:08.180 --> 00:21:10.320 But we're able to participate in their learning. 341 00:21:10.480 --> 00:21:16.280 So what we did is each week we did a weekly update for parents through Seesaw. 342 00:21:17.000 --> 00:21:20.440 And in that update we included things like Dementia Australia links. 343 00:21:20.640 --> 00:21:25.760 We included conversation starters based on the lesson that the children had had. 344 00:21:25.920 --> 00:21:27.600 We recapped each of the lessons. 345 00:21:27.700 --> 00:21:31.000 And we provided plenty of photos of the excursions. 346 00:21:31.000 --> 00:21:33.160 And also photos of what was happening in the classroom. 347 00:21:33.480 --> 00:21:36.520 And this enabled the parents to be really connected into the program. 348 00:21:36.660 --> 00:21:39.040 And have that knowledge transfer to home. 349 00:21:40.040 --> 00:21:43.360 So it very quickly ballooned into quite a large project. 350 00:21:43.740 --> 00:21:46.360 From something that was going to be a really small pilot project. 351 00:21:46.920 --> 00:21:48.640 As these things tend to happen. 352 00:21:48.700 --> 00:21:53.460 So we ended up with five different groups that were interested in this project. 353 00:21:53.680 --> 00:21:54.980 So we're interested in the children. 354 00:21:56.260 --> 00:22:00.400 We're interested in their knowledge and attitudes of dementia at baseline and post intervention. 355 00:22:00.700 --> 00:22:02.780 Which was assessed through this kids survey. 356 00:22:03.060 --> 00:22:04.920 We looked at quality of life and wellbeing. 357 00:22:04.920 --> 00:22:10.680 In a subset of the parents we interviewed them on their experiences of the program. 358 00:22:10.800 --> 00:22:14.200 And their recommendations for how we could improve the program. 359 00:22:14.320 --> 00:22:15.040 That was at the end. 360 00:22:15.820 --> 00:22:19.560 In some of the older clients we looked at quality of life and wellbeing. 361 00:22:20.480 --> 00:22:23.920 And then we also interviewed them about their experiences of the program. 362 00:22:24.200 --> 00:22:26.080 How they felt the program run. 363 00:22:26.200 --> 00:22:30.320 And any sort of tips for us for improvement in the future. 364 00:22:31.300 --> 00:22:34.420 We interviewed some of the carers as well of older adults. 365 00:22:34.980 --> 00:22:36.480 Who attended the facility. 366 00:22:38.040 --> 00:22:40.400 And got their experiences of the program. 367 00:22:40.740 --> 00:22:44.320 And then we also interviewed staff from all of the partner organisations. 368 00:22:45.380 --> 00:22:50.440 To really see how we can roll this out more sustainably in the future. 369 00:22:50.820 --> 00:22:54.700 So I'm not going to go through all of those different groups today. 370 00:22:55.360 --> 00:22:58.160 Because we're still in the process of analysing a lot of the data. 371 00:22:58.920 --> 00:23:00.780 But what I am going to talk about. 372 00:23:01.120 --> 00:23:03.800 This is the only figure I've got in my slide. 373 00:23:03.800 --> 00:23:06.040 Which is quite unusual for a neuroscientist. 374 00:23:06.080 --> 00:23:08.360 Who has lots and lots of figures generally in their slides. 375 00:23:09.040 --> 00:23:11.420 So bear with me with one figure. 376 00:23:12.260 --> 00:23:17.200 So this is the knowledge and attitudes towards dementia in the children. 377 00:23:17.840 --> 00:23:18.960 From baseline. 378 00:23:19.600 --> 00:23:21.140 So before the intervention. 379 00:23:21.400 --> 00:23:22.700 To post intervention. 380 00:23:23.440 --> 00:23:25.980 On the Y axis or this one. 381 00:23:26.640 --> 00:23:28.160 We've got the kids score. 382 00:23:28.520 --> 00:23:30.280 So this is scored out of 70. 383 00:23:30.740 --> 00:23:33.620 A higher score or a score closer to 70. 384 00:23:33.800 --> 00:23:37.160 Is indicative of greater knowledge of dementia. 385 00:23:37.460 --> 00:23:40.900 And better attitudes towards people living with dementia. 386 00:23:41.260 --> 00:23:44.080 And what we saw from baseline to post intervention. 387 00:23:44.320 --> 00:23:47.920 Is a significant improvement in these kids scores. 388 00:23:48.520 --> 00:23:52.240 When we collapsed all three classes together into one. 389 00:23:52.660 --> 00:23:56.420 When we looked at the class who didn't get to go on the excursion. 390 00:23:56.440 --> 00:23:58.300 We actually didn't see any difference. 391 00:23:58.360 --> 00:24:01.480 They also significantly improved in their knowledge and attitudes. 392 00:24:01.780 --> 00:24:03.500 And to the same extent. 393 00:24:03.800 --> 00:24:08.120 As the kids who did go into the excursion. 394 00:24:08.380 --> 00:24:10.800 One of the potential reasons for this. 395 00:24:11.220 --> 00:24:13.080 Is that it was quite a small number. 396 00:24:13.240 --> 00:24:17.900 So we only had 30 kids that didn't go on the excursion. 397 00:24:17.920 --> 00:24:20.560 But this is something that perhaps we could look at in the future. 398 00:24:20.940 --> 00:24:22.700 In terms of the older adults. 399 00:24:23.260 --> 00:24:26.340 The older adults that were involved in the evaluation. 400 00:24:27.060 --> 00:24:30.580 All had quite high quality of life and wellbeing. 401 00:24:30.880 --> 00:24:31.840