The project came together through multi-institutional capacities and team expertise, in sync with connections to communities. The project team established strong collaborations with researchers across diverse UniSA Academic Units and research centres, University of Adelaide, Flinders University as well as with industry partners and people with lived experience. The lead investigators have rich project experiences in working with a range of CALD communities, including older migrant adults, young refugees and immigrants.

IAP initiated by community centres and organisations are growing in popularity in Australia. There is recognition that CALD communities are enthusiastic to participate in these programs to increase their wellbeing as these programs provide opportunities to share skills and stories across generations and connect with a broader community. Community centres and organisation are keen to enhance their programs. This project will discuss the development of a co-design, cross disciplinary approach involving experts from three universities working with industry partners in the community, city councils and independent organisations. The researchers engaged with participants over three stages – survey, interviews and co-design workshops. Preliminary research included a scoping review on design for intergenerational play spaces that assisted to define design in process and infrastructure through a thematic analysis of past research projects across an international setting. Each of these methods were designed to provide opportunities to reimagine and enrich existing programs and develop pilot programs. The process revealed insights into both successes and challenges arising from past programs and highlighted co-designed creative strategies to co-design pilot projects.

One group focused on self-care and wellness and was for the carers and concurrently their partners who were living with dementia participated in an art program. Skilled facilitators delivered both programs. Data were collected from the co-design workshop, weekly reflections from facilitators, interviews with participants and a focus group with program facilitators. The design and focus of these groups were unique - filling a gap for engaging and meaningful programs to support people living with dementia in the community and their carers. The findings were that the dyads enjoyed knowing they were nearby to each other, felt safe in the groups and were surprised at how much they took from the programs. Participants enjoyed the opportunity to ‘be in the moment’ and reported positive psycho-social outcomes from their involvement.

We developed a participatory methodology, engaging a neurodiverse comics creator to facilitate a series of workshops both in person and online, in which participants discussed the support networks which helped them in their comics creation; their engagement with education, both formal and informal; and the challenges of developing a creative practice in Adelaide.

Project outcomes:

A panel was convened on 15 November 2023 as part of a research sharing day on the medical humanities and creative writing convened by UniSA’s Creative People, Products and Places Centre.

In collaboration with comics creators, the research team will develop and disseminate a zine that explains ways to support neurodivergent artists’ practice.

The research team will develop a peer-reviewed article for a Q1 journal on the methodology, results, interpretation, and implications of the research. Comics will be utilised to communicate the research. A chapter has also been contracted for the Palgrave Handbook of Disability in Comics and Graphic Narratives.

Using live interactive video effects, Proximity Clinical aims to restore proprioception, bilateral symmetry and motor acuity. The technology was initially developed by Garry Stewart and French video engineer Thomas Pachoud for le Ballet Du Rhin (France) and Australian Dance Theatre.

This study, a qualitative exploration from conversational interviews with 7 Aboriginal residents and 19 carers, aimed to investigate how the Aboriginal residents’ spiritual well-being related to living in residential aged care in South Australia.

Participants shared what spirituality meant to them and how spiritual needs are met in aged care centres for Aboriginal residents.

Three major themes emerged from the views of the residents and carers: a lack of understanding of spiritual well-being; challenges around aged care plan; and practice and inadequate resources and funding. The main themes and sub-themes contributed to carers’ unawareness around the spiritual care needs of Aboriginal residents. This study concluded there was a requirement for changes in care management and staff approach, and management structure in order to integrate spiritual care into general care for Aboriginal residents in aged care.

While music therapy is a well-established form of psychological support and intervention, used across a range of contexts, challenges clearly exist for music therapists (MTs) when engaging with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (ATSI) peoples, particularly given the dearth of materials available to support this endeavour. As such, this project aims to:

Understand the attitudes towards, and experiences of, music therapists when working with ATSI Australians, across a range of health settings including tertiary health contexts

Provide a set of recommendations about cultural safety and best practice when conducting music therapy sessions with ATSI patients

develop a songbook and other supporting resources for use by music therapists when engaging with ATSI peoples

An information pack regarding the new resource will also be provided to the Music Therapy Association of Australia, and presentations made to relevant health groups included hospitals.

The project addresses key issues for ATSI health, demonstrates co-design between partner universities, develops connections with industry and creates new knowledge, practices, and resonant translational research aimed at improving the wellbeing and health outcomes for community.