Moyra Mortby has recently taken up a position as Dementia Collaborative Research Centre (DCRC) postdoctoral fellow. She has completed her PhD at the University of Zurich and will be contributing to the ANDI project which is aimed at investigating brain variability to discriminate and identify individuals with normal and abnormal brain structure.

 

5th Annual ISRII Conference a success

The Australian National University hosted the 5th international ISRII conference in Sydney in April, 2011  Over 150 delegates, including more than half from overseas, attended the conference, which was held at the UNSW and the historic Q Station on Sydney Harbour.  It was a great success, and this was a direct result of the work of the conference committee, particularly at the CMHR.  All the people who contributed to the success of the conference need to be congratulated, but especially Robert Tait, Alison Calear, Anne Madden, Kathy Griffiths, Kylie Bennett, Anthony Bennett, Lou Farrer, Amelia Gulliver, Julia Reynolds, Carl Moller, Jacqui Brewer, and many others from the Centre for Mental Health Research. Many thanks to Nathan Wright and Fiona Hurley for their administrative support. The official conference photo was taken by Anthony Bennett.   

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CMHR Welcomes New Collaborators

Two new collaborators have joined the Ageing Research Unit.

Dr Alex Bahar-Fuchs

Alex is a clinical neuropsychologist who specializes in assessment and rehabilitation of cognitive, emotional and behavioural changes associated with brain injury and various forms of neurological disease. Broad areas of interest are cognitive ageing in health and disease, neuropsychotherapy and cross-cultural neuropsychology. Alex has an interested in the early detection of neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease and in the link between olfactory and cognitive decline in old age. More recently, Alex’s interests have shifted to the emerging field of cognitive interventions for older people with mild cognitive decline and to the development of integrated cognitive-affective approaches to intervention. Alex has joined us from Melbourne to work on the PROACTA project.

 

Dr Waijia Zhong

Dr Zhong is visiting CMHR for six months to collaborate on neuroimaging research in the Ageing Research Unit. Dr Zhong is an Associate Professor and specialist radiologist from The Second Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University. He is specialised in neuroradiology and has particular interest in diffusion tensor imaging.

CMHR research making news

Associate Professor Peter Butterworth is lead author of a research paper making news around the world.  The research, published in the journal Occupational and Environmental Medicine, analysed seven waves of data from the HILDA Survey and found that the mental health of respondents who were unemployed was comparable or superior to those in jobs of the poorest psychosocial quality. Further, while moving from unemployment into a high quality job led to improved mental health, a transition from unemployment to a poor quality job was more detrimental to mental health than remaining unemployed.

From news.com.au:  “The ANU findings have hit the headlines in more than 100 media outlets around the world including Forbes, Bloomberg, CNN, Time, the UK Express, Toronto Sun, Los Angeles Times and Irish Times.”
From smh.com.au:  “The study should prompt a rethink about the importance of work to mental health.”

Reference:  Butterworth, P., Leach, L.S., Strazdins, L., Olesen, S.C., Rodgers, B. &  Broom, D.H. (Published Online First 14 March 2011).  The psychosocial quality of work determines whether employment has benefits for mental health: results from a longitudinal national household panel survey.  Occup Environ Med. 

http://oem.bmj.com/content/early/2011/02/26/oem.2010.059030.abstract

 

The Ageing Boom: Current Research and Future Challenges

On Wednesday 31st of March the ACT student section of the Australian Association of Gerontology (which includes a healthy contingent of students from the Ageing Research Unit at CMHR) held their 3rd Intergenerational Forum on Ageing Research with the theme “The Ageing Boom: Current Research and Future Challenges”.

Right: Ms Bronwen Overton-Clarke, Executive Director of Policy and Organisational Services DHCS opens proceedings to the Intergenerational forum.

The forum was well attended, bringing together over 90 members of the local community, researchers, consumer groups, service providers, policy makers and government. The event provides a great opportunity for local postgraduate students in ageing to present their research in a public forum, and encourages open dialogue on ageing research and ageing issues.

Ageing Research Unit students Kim Kiely, Dimity Crisp, Sarang Kim and Sarah Walker all presented their work. The forum also featured a keynote address from the ACT Senior Australian of the Year Marie Coleman and two open discussion panels on "Managing Changing Health" and "Housing: Ageing in Place".

The ACT AAG student representative Kim Kiely said feedback from the event has been overwhelmingly positive and the day was a huge success. The AAG student group look forward to holding similar events in future. For more information please visit: http://www.aag.asn.au/act_events.php