The University of Tasmania’s Wicking Dementia Research and Education Centre will play a key role in a $27.9 million program to educate the workforce providing care for people with dementia.
The Wicking Centre is part of a new consortium which makes up the federally funded organisation Dementia Training Australia (DTA).
DTA will draw particularly upon the Wicking Centre’s expertise as a world leader in online dementia education, with the centre producing online dementia education products due for release in 2017.
As part of the consortium the Wicking Centre will partner with Alzheimer’s Australia, the University of Wollongong, La Trobe University, the University of Western Australia and Queensland University of Technology.
“This contribution demonstrates the capacity of the Wicking Centre’s innovation in developing cutting edge, world class, on-line dementia education and training,” Wicking Centre Co-Director Professor Andrew Robinson (pictured with Co-Director Professor James Vickers) said.
“It also brings us in line with mainstream dementia education and training in Australia, working with the best and most talented people within this space.”
The consortium operates as a single body led by eminent experts in dementia training and is funded by the Australian Government’s Dementia and Aged Care Services Fund.
It is estimated that around 400,000 Australians will be living with dementia by 2020, and around 900,000 by 2050.
Professor Robinson said the DTA’s collaborative and consistent approach would enable it to respond to many of the current challenges in current dementia training arrangements.
“For the first time, training will be delivered through a truly integrated approach and will be delivered both face to face and online from sites in every state and territory,” he said.
The Wicking Dementia Research and Education Centre, which sits within the University’s Faculty of Health, is a leader in dementia research and has major research programs on the care, cause and prevention of dementia.
