2018-19 Summer Students

Posted by on 15 October 2018

These scholarships are awarded to support high achieving students at Auckland University with an ageing focused research project, over the 10 week summer break.

Jessica Chase

Supporting Family Carers with End of Life Caregiving: What Advice Would Carers Themselves Give?

During the Te Pakeketanga: Living and Dying in Advanced Age study, family and whanau members who had cared for relatives who died in older age were asked to provide advice for those who may take on the same responsibility in the future. Using data from the Te Paketanga study, the purpose of this project is to create a resource for family using advice from family experienced in caring for a family member at the end of life. 

To date there are few resources for family new to caregiving and none have been developed using advice from those with experience in this role.  While some information may be available for new family carers from health professionals, there is little opportunity to access advice from family experienced in caregiving. Using key themes identified from the Te Paketanga interview data, a video will be made to ensure the information is made more accessible to those who are likely to use it.  This video will be disseminated via the Te Arai Palliative Care and End of Life Research group blog https://tearairesearchgroup.org/ social media, and existing networks (e.g. with organisations such as Age Concern and Dementia Auckland).

This summer project will be supported by the Te Arai Palliative Care and End of Life Research Group https://tearairesearchgroup.org/ who are experienced in developing similar consumer focused video resources. 

Rebecca Knell

Trends in the place of death of older people across populations

My name is Rebecca Knell and I am a second-year health science and commerce conjoint student at the University of Auckland. The proposed research aims to utilize new data to describe recent trends in the place of death of older people across populations. The Ministry of Health determines that older people account for the largest spend of health resources. As the oldest are the fastest growing age group this has implications for the planning and funding of care services in the future.

The research process will involve collecting and analysing data to determine international trends in this sphere of health care. The wider context here is the aging population worldwide and the diversity of late-stage care between populations. International comparisons at of the late stage of life will help guide best practice in aged care in New Zealand.

The findings will be framed through the impact of social context, values, and cultural variations to assess the similarities and differences in health care in late life and how they are changing over time. The findings from this project will update those published previously, to enable their ongoing use to guide policy to ensure high quality and effective health care for older people.

Many thanks to the HOPE -Selwyn Foundation for sponsoring this research.