Charles Sturt University - Sustainability - Research Seed Grant

Title: Building resilient people and sustainable health services: Understanding health service usage among older Australians with Chronic Disease (CD) and/or multi-morbidity (MM) during crisis.
Abstract:
As Australia’s population ages already strained health systems will become overwhelmed, leading to health inequality, and adversely affecting the quality of life (QOL) of older people. In particular, older people experiencing CD and MM living within regional, rural, and remote (RRR) areas where access to health care is already inequitable will be most impacted. There is an urgent need to explore the psychosocial and demographic factors related to health service usage amongst a large population of older Australian’s during a time of pandemic, where out of adaptive necessity, health services were delivered at a distance via technology enabled strategies such as telehealth. We are seeking funding of $10,000 for a licence to access the Sax Institute’s 45 and Up Covid-19 data hub to seed the initial stages of a research program designed to support the equitable and sustainable delivery of health services particularly within RRR New South Wales (NSW).