Professor
Michael Ashby |
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Michael Ashby is Director of Palliative Care at the Royal Hobart Hospital and Southern Tasmania Area Health Service. In 2009 he was appointed Clinical Leader of the state-wide Palliative Care Clinical Network that was set up as part of the Tasmanian Health Plan.
He holds a conjoint position as Professor of Palliative Care, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Tasmania, and is currently Coordinator of Theme 4 (Personal and Professional Development) in the UTAS MBBS course, which includes responsibility for ethics and law teaching. He chairs the Clinical Ethics Committee at the Royal Hobart Hospital.
He graduated from St Bartholomew's Hospital, London University in 1978, and trained in medicine and radiation oncology in the UK, France and Australia. He has held clinical, academic and managerial positions since 1989 in Adelaide and Melbourne prior to moving to Hobart in 2007.
He is Past President of the Australia and New Zealand Society for Palliative Medicine (ANZSPM) and a past Chairman of the Chapter of Palliative Medicine at the Royal Australasian College of Physicians.
His current research interests are in law, ethics and the humanities as they apply to care and decision-making at the end of life, grief and loss, and advance care planning.
Telephone: (+61) 3 6220 2457
Mobile: 0408 998 744
Fax: (+61) 3 6224 2451
Location: Palliative Care service, Repatriation Centre. 1st Floor, Peacock Building, 90 Davey St, Hobart, Tas 7000.
Email: michael.ashby@dhhs.tas.gov.au
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Professor
Andrew Robinson |
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Andrew Robinson is Professor of Aged Care Nursing, School Of Nursing and Midwifery, Co-Director, Wicking Dementia Research and Education Centre (WDREC), Menzies Research Institute and Associate Dean (Research), Faculty of Health Sciences at The University of Tasmania. Andrew has established a thriving multi-disciplinary aged care research program in Tasmania with collaborators in the UTAS Schools of Medicine, Pharmacy, Psychology, Information Systems and Rural Health, as well as a range of Tasmanian acute care, residential aged care and community based service providers and interstate colleagues. As Co-Director of WDREC, Andrew oversees projects that span health services, clinical and biomedical research, and education and workforce capacity, to tackle the leading issues related to the increasing numbers of people with dementia. |
| Sharon Andrews |
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Sharon Andrews works as a researcher with the Wicking Dementia Research and Education Centre, Menzies Research Institute, University of Tasmania. She is a registered nurse with a clinical background in aged care and palliative care practice. Sharon’s key area of expertise is in action research and practice development for staff in residential aged care facilities (RACFs), particularly with a focus on dementia and palliative care. Her PhD investigated strategies that were effective in developing the practices of aged care staff to support evidence based palliative approach to care for people with advanced dementia and will be submitted mid 2010.
Sharon currently coordinates a project that has a focus on improving communication and practice in advance and end of life care planning for people with dementia in RACFs as well as a chief investigator on another study exploring communication and information needs of aged care staff and family caregivers in the provision of care for people with moderate to severe dementia in RACFs. Sharon has previously consulted in a best practice falls prevention project, funded by the DOHA and is involved in teaching undergraduate nursing and medical students in a subject on ageing through the School of Nursing at the University of Tasmania.
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Associate Professor
Fran McInerney |
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Fran is a registered nurse and a sociologist. She holds postgraduate qualifications in nursing, education, social science, and public health. her research interests include social constructions of death and dying, the nexus between aged and palliative care, health workers in aged care and palliative contexts, dementia care, and qualitative research methodologies.
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| Dr Chris Stirling |
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Wicking Dementia Research and Education Centre
Dr Christine Stirling is a Senior Research Fellow at the Wicking Dementia Research and Education Centre, UTas. Her research interests include dementia and primary health care. Christine’s work with rural health workers, carers, and volunteers has generated insights into how we can better link consumers and health workers.
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Associate Professor
Chris Toye
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Chris Toye Associate Professor, Older Persons’ Health Care, at Curtin University of Technology. She has an aged care nursing background and undertook post doctoral work in a palliative care setting.
Chris’s teaching background includes both inter professional care provision for people who have dementia and gerontological nursing care. She is on the management committee of the WA Dementia Training Study Centre and undertook the WA based evaluation of the Dementia Care Essentials education program (funded by the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing [DoHA]).
Chris has a particular interest is in the provision of a palliative approach for older people with life limiting illness or frailty. She led a recent DoHA funded project to develop guidelines for a palliative approach in community aged care. Chris also had strong involvement with the DoHA funded project, led by Professor Linda Kristjanson, that developed similar guidelines for residential aged care. Her research into the support of family carers involves national and international partnerships.
Chris also works in the Centre for Nursing Research, Innovation and Quality at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital. As her research at the University is often in residential aged care settings, she has a strong understanding of issues involved when older people move between health sectors.
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| Susan Leggett |
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As a Research Associate in WDREC Susan Leggett is involved in projects in the care of people with dementia—trialling a carers’ service decision aid, and investigating carer knowledge and communication in end of life care for people with dementia. Her earlier work was in rural health and health informatics.
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