INvestigating Services Provided in the Residential care Environment for people with Dementia (INSPIRED) study – Improving quality of life for people living with dementia in residential aged care

Funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Cognitive Decline Partnership Centre (CDPC)

INSPIRED is a study within the National Health and Medical Research Council funded Cognitive Decline Partnership Centre aimed at at understanding long-term care for older people with cognitive decline in Australia. The project is led by Professor Maria Crotty and her research team of Dr Suzanne Dyer, Dr Stephanie Harrison, Dr Emmanuel Gnanamanickam, Dr Rachel Milte and Dr Enwu Liu.

The INSPIRED study examines the resource use, costs and outcomes of different models of residential aged care in Australia with a focus on people living with dementia. The project provides aged care providers and health decision makers in Australia with a measure of the cost of providing quality care to people with dementia, enabling them to plan services and shape policy more effectively and efficiently.

This national study included 541 participants from 17 not-for-profit residential care facilities across four states in Australia. An important component of the study is that people with cognitive impairment and dementia were not excluded.