Bringing aged care innovation to the world wide web

The winner of a major industry scholarship plans to establish a website highlighting creative ideas from around the globe.

Jenny Gill was surprised when she typed ‘innovation’ and ‘aged care’ into Google and nothing came up. 

But the Director of Special Projects & Project Management of Hall & Prior Aged Care decided to do something about it.

“I thought, what we need is our own website highlighting the best innovations in aged care so I bought the domain names www.innovationsinagedcare.com.au and www.innovationsinagedcare.com.”

And now with a $20,000 scholarship from St George Bank and Kell & Rigby, she plans to go on a four-week tour to report on the best practices in aged care around the globe.

Next May Ms Gill will travel to Canada, the USA, Scotland, the Netherlands and Japan to investigate leading models of design, dementia care and even the application of robotics in aged care.

“I want to report on the whole spectrum of aged care services so I will be looking at buildings, care programs, systems and technology,” she said.

“I want to get the best ideas from around the world so I can share what is being done internationally.”

Ms Gill intends to upload information from her travels onto the website as she goes and she also plans to make a DVD based on her experiences.

After the trip is over, she hopes that the site will continue to operate, allowing aged care professionals from all over the world to exchange innovative ideas.

Contributors will be able to upload their stories at no cost and companies providing innovative goods and services to the sector will have the opportunity advertise on the site.

“Anyone will be able to put information onto that site,” she said. “If you are a DON and have a great walking program, like the one I found out about in California, then you can share it with the rest of the world.”

On her return to Australia, Ms Gill will provide a project report, deliver papers at industry conferences and publish articles in industry magazines and journals.

The St George Bank and Kell & Rigby scholarship is available to senior managers working for aged care organisations in Australia.

Tags: hall-prior, internet, kell-rigby, scholarship, st-george,

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