Pippa Burns

Issue Addressed: As the population ages the prevalence of dementia increases and children are increasingly experiencing family members and older friends living with dementia. Unfortunately, stigma about living with dementia is common. Increasing understanding about dementia among children has the potential to reduce this stigma. This paper reports on the qualitative findings of Project DARE (dementia knowledge, art, research and education), a school-based, multi-modal, arts program designed to increase understanding about dementia among children aged 8-10 years.Methods: A constructivist grounded theory approach was used to understand students' experience of the intervention. Thematic analysis was used to identify key themes emerging from interviews with randomly selected students (n = 40) who had taken part in the program.Results: The data analysis generated three themes related to students' awareness of dementia and experiences of the program: (1) nurturing empathy, (2) memory loss is complex, (3) learning about dementia through the arts to promote resilience. These themes show that the intervention increased students' awareness of dementia, and empathy towards people who are both directly and indirectly affected by dementia.Conclusions: Although dementia education can be viewed as too sensitive for primary aged students, the current study demonstrates that such initiatives are feasible and can be effectively implemented with this age group.So What?: Changing student's beliefs about dementia can positively impact their relationships with people living with dementia.

This paper describes how evidence-based practice (EBP) is taught through an integrated curriculum across a 4-year graduate MD program. Mapping of the curriculum to the domains of the Sicily Statement of EBP was an effective approach to evaluate integration of EBP into a graduate medical education program. The longitudinal integration of EBP engages students in multiple opportunities to learn, understand, and apply these concepts. The EBP program incorporates both traditional and innovative teaching approaches and can easily be adapted for other professional courses. This whole-course approach is graduating a new generation of doctors with a sound understanding of EBP.

This article discusses the characteristics of enabling and autism-friendly environments and outlines how one community co-enacted research to become autism-friendly. The project was a co-production between members of the autistic and autism communities and local business/service members. Data collected during this participatory action research to develop a set of principles for autism-friendliness were analyzed to ensure the resulting principles could meet the needs of the local autistic community and be realistically applied by varied businesses. Through the exploration of literature, the lived experiences of members of the local community and the use of walk-through observations by two autistic research assistants, the SERVICE principles were developed. A website (https://www.autismfriendlycommunities.com) was co-developed to showcase the principles and provide examples of how to apply them to any environment and/or work practices to become more autism-friendly for low or no-cost. This article discusses the development of the principles and the co-production process. Graphical Abstract

This article will describe an approach to curriculum reconciliation that aspires to be the first step towards recognising that Indigenous ways of knowing have equal value and status as the dominant institutional systems of knowledge. Specifically, curriculum reconciliation is considered in the context of building knowledge-based relationships between disciplinary knowledges and the relevant Indigenous knowledges in science, medicine and health. Approaches to cultural education in the tertiary sector will be explored and consideration will be given to the particular challenges inherent in science, medicine and health education for curriculum reconciliation. The constraints of academic systems, as evidenced in the literature, will be acknowledged with the aim to provide guidance for curriculum reconciliation in science, medicine and health education that endeavours to establish the intrinsic value of Aboriginal knowledge relative to Country, to be understood alongside, not as an alternative to, or in opposition to, ‘Western’ scientific and/or medical knowledge.

Issue addressed: To develop, implement and evaluate the impact of a short education intervention on the understanding of dementia through visual art by primary school‐aged children.Methods: A series of three lessons were developed in consultation with a local schoolteacher and community artists and taught in a local primary school. Stage 2 students (8‐10 years old) created an artwork about memory, learned about dementia and adapted their artworks to represent their developing understanding of dementia. Empirical data were collected through pre and postinterventions surveys and content analysis of the artworks.Results: Matched pre and postintervention survey data were obtained for 74 students and showed a significant improvement in seven domains. This indicated that the students had an increased understanding of dementia and its impact on the individual following the intervention. Matched artwork was analysed from lessons 1 and 3 for 109 students using a coding schema developed specifically for this project. The students developed their artwork to show memories fading or being lost altogether. They also used abstract shapes to create a sense of disorder and chaos.Conclusion: Participation in the intervention was shown to increase students’ understanding and knowledge of dementia using both qualitative and quantitative measures.So what?: It is likely that by educating children about dementia, we have the potential to reduce the stigma faced by people living with dementia and their carers. This is important, as the ageing population means that more people within the community, including children, will know someone living with dementia. Further, this represents the cornerstone in creating dementia‐friendly communities.

This case study describes the design and development of a multisensory environment for use by a local community, in response to local needs. Multisensory environments allow users to control the sensory inputs they experience from the environment. This autonomy may be especially impactful for those living with autism or dementia. The evidence base supporting the design, development and implementation of multisensory environments has been limited to date. This case study explores the evolution of the interdisciplinary team from a request for collaboration to the creation of a functioning multisensory room. It describes the experiences of the group of researchers finding shared understandings and evolving to a transdisciplinary approach.

With rising rates of mental health disorders being reported globally, it is imperative that we investigate economical and accessible ways to increase relaxation and reduce stress. While there is a plethora of anecdotal evidence as to the positive effects of domestic crafts on mental wellbeing, there is little empirical research in this area. As such, we aimed to explore perceived links between crochet and wellbeing. An online survey was developed and piloted, based on an existing tool that explored knitting and wellbeing. The final survey was promoted through social media, over a 6-week period, resulting in valid responses from 8391 individuals. Most respondents were female (99.1%), aged between 41 and 60 years (49.5%) and living in 87 different countries. Many respondents reported crocheting for between 1 and 5 years (42.6%). The three most frequent reasons reported for crocheting were: to be creative (82.1%), to relax (78.5%) and for a sense of accomplishment (75.2%). Respondents reported that crochet made them feel calmer (89.5%), happier (82%) and more useful (74.7%). There was a significant improvement in reported scores for mood before crocheting (M = 4.19, SD = 1.07) and mood after crocheting (M = 5.78, SD = 0.82); z = −69.86, p < .001, r = −0.56. Content analysis of free-text responses identified five major themes: (1) health benefits, (2) process of crochet, (3) personal connection, (4) crochet as contribution and (5) online crochet communities. The data suggests that crochet offers positive benefits for personal wellbeing with many respondents actively using crochet to manage mental health conditions and life events such as grief, chronic illness and pain. Crochet is a relatively low-cost, portable activity that can be easily learnt and seems to convey all of the positive benefits provided by knitting. This research suggests that crochet can play a role in promoting positive wellbeing in the general population, adding to the social prescribing evidence base.

Objective: Increased exposure to post‐graduate rural medical training is associated with increased likelihood of future rural practice. Training rotations in rural emergency departments provide a possible avenue for such exposure, but have been under‐investigated. This study aimed to compare junior medical officers' emergency department experiences in a metropolitan and a rural hospital to inform rural health workforce initiatives.Design: Mixed‐method case‐study design.Setting: Two 10‐week periods in the respective emergency departments.Participants: Four junior medical officers at the rural site and 22 junior medical officers at the metropolitan hospital.Main outcome measures: Caseloads extracted from electronic medical records and training experience.Results: Data were collected over 142 days. The average number of patients seen per day, per junior medical officer, was significantly higher at the rural hospital emergency department (7.2 patients per day) in comparison with the metropolitan hospital (4.3 patients per day). Junior medical officers at the rural hospital saw relatively more lower acuity patients. The seven junior medical officers who were interviewed provided consistently positive responses regarding their training experiences in both locations. This was particularly evident in the rural hospital and was attributed to one‐on‐one supervision.Conclusions: Most junior medical officers agreed that their expectations for support and learning opportunities were met and/or exceeded. However, junior medical officers reported feeling more supported at the rural hospital due to direct contact and communication with senior medical officers. Placement in a smaller hospital emergency department did not disadvantage the junior medical officers' training in this case‐study and provided a positive rural training experience. These findings support workforce policies which encourage rural hospital emergency department training.