Written by Prof. Jennifer Tieman, Director, RePaDD

Two years ago in 2019 I was fortunate to lead a project that stepped outside the way we normally do research and knowledge sharing. CareHack was enabled by a Flinders University grant and hosted within the College of Nursing and Health Sciences. We wanted to reimagine aged care and a social hackathon seemed the best way. Think of an intense weekend that is both a marathon and a sprint and a workaround innovation to a problem where the problem is not computer programming but real life. CareHack attracted media and community interest, great participants and lots of ideas. It also brought people together to offer different perspectives and provide insights into the issues, the needs and the possibilities. It also brought our palliative care and aged care projects including CareSearch, palliAGED and ELDAC into contact with innovAGEING.

So why does this matter two years later? Well today, Flinders University has teamed up with innovAGEING, the nation’s first innovation network for age services, in a partnership with Flinders’ Caring Futures Institute and the Research Centre for Palliative Care, Death and Dying (RePaDD). Two years ago we did not have RePaDD and we did not have the Caring Futures Institute. Flinders University has recognised the importance of caring and self-care and of ageing, caring, dying and grieving through the establishment of these two research entities.

Now we take a new step to innovation and growth by forming this alliance with innovAGEING. Professor Sue Gordon, Strategic Professor, Chair of Restorative Care in Ageing, College of Nursing and Health Sciences, and Professor Jennifer Tieman, Director, Research Centre for Palliative Care, Death and Dying, and CareSearch Director, Palliative and Supportive Services, College of Nursing and Health Sciences, will join the Expert-in-Residence program.

There is an opportunity for us to share what we are learning from our partners and our community and by working with innovAGEING to influence care more broadly.