Author Identifier
Loretta Baldassar: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6246-4773
Manonita Ghosh: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0522-1959
Rosemary Saunders: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6213-4694
Document Type
Journal Article
Publication Title
Australasian Journal on Ageing
Publisher
Wiley
School
School of Arts and Humanities / Centre for Research in Aged Care / School of Nursing and Midwifery
Funders
Medical Research Future Fund (MRF2016045)
Abstract
Frailty is an important concept in the care of older adults. Over the past two decades, significant advances have been made in measuring frailty. While it is now well-recognised that frailty status is an important determinant of outcomes from medical illnesses or surgical interventions, frailty measurement is not currently routinely integrated into clinical practice. In the community setting, it is uncommon for general practitioners to deliver frailty-optimised care. In hospitals, there is substantial variability in how people living with frailty are managed. This variability is notable between and even within disciplines. Furthermore, gains from understanding frailty mechanisms and risk factors are not yet applied/implemented at scale to delay the progression of frailty in community-dwellers. The Australian Frailty Network (AFN) is a national collaborative group of researchers, clinicians, non-government organisations, consumers and policymakers, in which the engagement and active involvement of consumers has been embedded from the outset. The AFN aims to generate new knowledge to improve health outcomes, to ensure evidence-based management is translated into clinical practice and to build capacity in multidisciplinary and translational frailty research. Here, we describe the development of the AFN, highlighting important milestones: (i) securing funding for the network and flagship elements; (ii) an inaugural summit to establish the strategic vision, values and scope with end-users; (iii) sabbatical visits to learn from international examples; and (iv) developing the governance structure and an actionable plan encompassing consumer engagement, research, education and policy and practice to maximise impact.
DOI
10.1111/ajag.13365
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
Comments
Reid, N., Young, A., Baldassar, L., Christoffersen, A., Comans, T., Conroy, S., ... & Hubbard, R. E. (2024). The Australian Frailty Network: Development of a consumer‐focussed national response to frailty. Australasian Journal on Ageing. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajag.13365