About WACHA

The WA Centre for Health and Ageing is a leading, non-profit clinical research and education Centre that has defined ageing research in Western Australia.

The WA Centre for Health and Ageing launched in 2000 to pioneer a "new model" of collaborative multidisciplinary science that would transform ageing research in Western Australia. A unique scientific community was established, of diverse talents with a singular purpose - improving the health of people in mid life and beyond, by applying research knowledge to practice. The Centre brings together world-class researchers, clinicians and students, empowering them to work together to identify and overcome the most critical obstacles to realizing the full promise of ageing research.

The Centre is organized around scientific programs covering; healthy ageing; clinical research; and health services, to build, apply, and share with scientists worldwide the knowledge needed to revolutionize disease prevention, treatment and cure for people in midlife and beyond. The Centre runs pioneering programs in dementia, depression and frailty research with a record of success.

The Centre's work focuses on three streams:

• Healthy Ageing Program (to determine the factors that maintain good health with increasing age)
• Clinical Research Program (to determine the factors and mechanisms that lead to poor health with increasing age, as well as strategies to improve the health outcomes of older people)
• Health Service Research Program (to determine the optimal way of organising and delivering health services to older people - including those from ethnic minorities or who live in rural and remote areas)

Teaching

WACHA Academics hold conjoint school appointments and contribute significantly to Undergraduate medical programmes. The unit co-ordinates the under-graduate geriatric medicine program as well as post-graduate activities. The undergraduate stream includes a clinical attachment and a problem-based self directed learning stream. Teaching utilizes interactive problem based formats to help students think creatively and critically about the problems and needs of older people. There is a strong focus on community services, including delivery of teaching by partner organizations such as the Alzheimer's Association.