University of Tasmania, Australia

Research Associate

Biography

Susan's research work has been across a range of sociological and health streams. At Wicking, she is working on several projects in health services provision, including trialling interventions to improve caregiver outcomes both in the community and in aged care facilities. Before the present palliative care/dementia work, she was part of a team within the international ACTION for Health project examining the role of information intermediaries in health information provision in rural, remote and very remote Queensland, and an ARC Linkage project developing support mechanisms for workers in rural and remote Australia who work in suicide prevention (ACROSSnet).

Research Interests

• Interventions to improve caregiver outcomes both in the community and in aged care facilities
• Nature of care (motivation, impacts for giver and recipients)
• Susan is a PhD candidate in the UTAS School of Sociology and Social Work. Her topic is "What are the meanings non-clinical paid care/support workers in facilities and the community attach to their work with disability or older people".

Research Projects and Roles

• Trialling a community service decision aid (the GOLD Book)-Project manager.
• Opening a dialogue: Improving communication and practice in advance care and end of life care planning-Project officer.
• An investigation into aged care staff and family caregivers' communication
  about and participation in care provision for people living with moderate and severe dementia in residential aged care facilities (RACFs)-Research assistant.

Project Funding

• Internal
• DoHA

Web Access Research Portal (WARP) for Ms Susan Banks (Leggett)