Minister opens new research centre devoted to the health needs of the ageing

5/12/01
The Department of Health and Royal Perth Hospital have joined forces with the University of Western Australia to form a new medical research centre devoted to the health needs of older people.
Health Minister Bob Kucera said MRC Age aimed to identify the mechanisms that contributed to the health problems of older people and develop strategies to delay or prevent them.
"WA's population is ageing, as is the case nation-wide," Mr Kucera said.
"Older people are more likely to be admitted to hospital, suffer chronic medical conditions, have a period of disability following acute illness that will require convalescence and need rehabilitation or supported accommodation."
Mr Kucera said MRC Age would work to prevent and reduce disease and disability among the aged.
He said the Department of Health had allocated nearly $500,000 each year for the past three years to fund Academic Chairs of Geriatric Medicine and Geriatric Psychiatry as part of its commitment to the issue of aged care.
"MRC Age will bring these two positions together, enabling closer ties in clinical work, research and teaching, and aiding the flow and development of ideas," the Minister said.
"The centre also benefits from two senior lecturers in geriatric medicine and geriatric psychiatry, as well as research staff, advanced trainees and administrative personnel."
Mr Kucera said the centre had already been remarkably successful in attracting research funding, which was a testament to its national and international competitiveness.
MRC Age is currently conducting research in the following areas:

• the use of geriatric assessment and rehabilitation to decrease the use of nursing homes and increase the quality and quantity of life for older people;
• the centre's own discovery that vitamin D deficiency is commonplace in people in residential care, and that such deficiency is associated with falls as well as fractures;
• the association between physiological levels of oestrogen, memory function and depression in older women;
• an investigation into whether vitamin supplements can decrease homocysteine levels and, therefore, decrease memory problems and depression in older men; and
• the harmful effects of smoking on the risk of dementia, anxiety and depression levels in older women.