Name: Henry Brodaty
Position/s: Scientia Professor of Ageing and Mental Health; Co-Director, Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing (CHeBA); Director, Dementia Centre for Research Collaboration; senior psychogeriatrician, Older People’s Mental Health Service, Prince of Wales Hospital.
Theme and CAG position:
Sub-theme leader for Healthy Ageing
What are you hoping to achieve in this role?
Fostering collaborations between different disciplines, across health and university, and across universities.
Providing opportunities for early career researchers to develop their projects.
How has the Neuroscience, Mental Health and Addiction Theme and CAG facilitated new opportunities in research and/or collaboration in the Healthy Ageing subtheme?
Funding for Professor Perminder Sachdev for “Ageing and Cognition Clinics: A state-wide harmonised approach” in 2017 was an important contribution to a successful $18m grant from the NHMRC National Institute for Dementia Research to establish the Australian Dementia Network which aims to coordinate memory clinic protocols across Australia.
Collaboration between Biomedical Engineering and CHeBA to develop assistive technology to assist people with dementia who live alone.
Collaboration by aged care researchers in Academic Health Science Centres, such as SPHERE, across Australia to form a consortium to design joint research projects
What do you see as the emerging areas of research priorities in Healthy Ageing?
Australia’s population aged 65 years and over is set to increase from about 16% to approaching 25% by mid-century. Those aged 80 years and over are projected to quadruple. As well as living longer, we are living better. Our priorities are how to maximise healthy ageing by preventing, forestalling, early detection or early treatment of age associated morbidities such dementia, osteoporosis, falls, stroke and cancer.
Better design and coordination of Australia’s health, community and residential care systems are priorities. The Royal Commission into Aged Care, Quality and Safety, which has just concluded hearings, may provide opportunity for further research and improvements when it releases its report in early 2021.