Cognitive and mental health of Aboriginal Australians - findings from the Koori Growing Old Well study

Cognitive and mental health of Aboriginal Australians - findings from the Koori Growing Old Well study

Principal speaker

Professor Brian Draper

Menzies Health Institute Queensland

Optimising Health Outcomes Seminar

Title

Cognitive and mental health of Aboriginal Australians - findings from the Koori Growing Old Well study

Abstract

The number of older Aboriginal Australians is increasing rapidly. The Koori Growing Old Well Study aimed to determine the prevalence and associations of dementia in 5 NSW urban and regional sites. It also obtained measures of mental health and self-harm. A community census was undertaken of all Aboriginal people aged 60+ living in our five partner communities (N=555); followed by measures of health, cognition, mental health and life history of participants (N=336 (61%); median age=66 years). The prevalence of dementia was 13.4% with Alzheimer's dementia the most common. On the PH9, 16.7% were currently depressed with 10.4% having suicidal ideation. Factors associated with the outcomes of dementia, depression and suicidal ideation varied but in each case included early life (childhood adversity), midlife (alcohol misuse, head injury, smoking, racism) and late life (cardiorespiratory disease, loneliness, dissatisfaction with life) factors. Prevention of dementia and depression in older Aboriginal people requires a whole of life strategy.

Biography

Brian Draper is Conjoint Professor, School of Psychiatry, UNSW; Clinical Lead, Academic Department for Old Age Psychiatry, Prince of Wales Hospital Sydney, Senior Clinical Advisor in Old Age Psychiatry, South East Sydney LHD. He is Honorary Senior Research Fellow, Neurosciences Research Australia and a member of the Dementia CRC at UNSW.

Dr Draper is Board Member, International Psychogeriatric Association (IPA); Past Chair: Faculty of Psychiatry of Old Age, RANZCP; IPA BPSD Shared Interest Group; and Australian Government's Psychogeriatric Care ERG. He is member: WHO Consultation Group on the Classification of Mental and Behavioural Disorders in Older Adults for the ICD-11 revision; Medical and Scientific Advisory Panel, Alzheimer's Disease International; Associate Editor, Suicide and Life Threatening Behavior; Scientific Advisor, American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. He has published over 350 scientific articles on professional development, old age mental health services; carer stress, suicidal behavior, depression, epidemiology of dementia, BPSD and substance use in late life, a book ‘Understanding Alzheimer's and Other Dementias' (2011, 2013) and has co-edited three academic books on Geriatric Consultation Liaison Psychiatry (2001), Psychogeriatric Service Delivery: an International Perspective (2005) and ‘Alcohol and the Adult Brain' (2015).

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