Our recent Hobart Expo

A huge thank you to the over 300 people across Southern Tasmania who came to our Hobart expo. We loved seeing so many of our participants and members of the local community at the fabulous C3 Convention Centre in South Hobart.

Everyone came to see the great variety of exhibitors covering our expo theme – dementia, prevention and wellbeing. It was terrific to have so many exhibitors focused on one, or more, of our modifiable risk factors as well as general health. Many of our UTAS research team were able to join us either as exhibitors or as attendees. Our UTAS/ISLAND Project exhibits covered our ISLAND Project research, our cognition clinic, profiling your own dementia risk, our UTAS developed online cognitive tests and how we are trying to use virtual reality to better understand why people with dementia lose the ability to navigate. Our ‘learning a new skill’ exhibit was particularly popular, and it was great to have that located with U3A and a juggler where many of you had the chance to try out something new!

Everyone at the ISLAND Project appreciates the support we received from our exhibitors, volunteers, C3 and our attendees. Events such as this are only a success if they are supported so the whole ISLAND team is very grateful.

Moving forward, the project team (Adam, Neda and Helen in the photo) will try to make you increasingly aware of practical tools, resources and groups that can further help you modify your dementia risk. As a start, there are some great resources relating to maintaining good movement and looking after cardiovascular risk included with this newsletter.

There are only three of us in the ISLAND project team and lots of communities in Tasmania for us to cover and resources to make you aware of! If any of you know of any events or groups in your local area that help modify dementia risk, please let us know at island@dementa.utas.edu.au

Over time, we can feature these in our newsletters and you can help us spread the word to others – whether or not they choose to be part of ISLAND with us, we just hope that we will all make changes to improve our mental and physical health and wellbeing.  

A million thanks to our expo volunteers

We were so fortunate to have six fabulous ISLAND Project participants volunteer their time to help us at the Hobart expo - and we want to say a big thank you.

Just like Devonport last year, we appreciate your time, enthusiasm, and kindness very much. There’s so much that would not have been done without your help – thank you for helping us make this expo a success. 

Tas Test - our own online cognitive testing will be offered again in mid 2022

TAS Test is a new online screening test that aims to detect the earliest stages of Alzheimer's disease (the most common cause of dementia) 10-20 years before any memory or thinking symptoms start. It has been developed by researchers at the University of Tasmania and with the help of 2,000 ISLAND Project participants who have already taken the test.

TAS Test analyses hand movements and reaction times to detect the earliest changes in dexterity that are associated with dementia. It takes about 20 minutes and simply requires a laptop or desktop computer so can be done in the participant’s own home. 

Thank you to all The ISLAND Project participants for helping us develop this important new test -  please look out for new invitations to complete TAS Test again in June/July 2022 as we would like everyone to complete it each year for the next few years.

Time to book a Heart Health Check?

The Heart Foundation are encouraging anyone over 45 years of age - or 30 years of age for anyone of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Island descent - to book a heart health check. Their website contains information as to what is involved, the benefits of getting a check and how your GP and nurse will support you to make positive changes to lower your risk. Check our their Heart Health check information on their webpage and book an appointment if you need to. 

Strength Training 'Smoother Mover' Classes Available

Arthritis and Osteoporosis Tasmania are offering the Smoother Mover Healthy Lifestyle program for people with arthritis related symptoms to help us keep moving. Its open to people of all abilities and involves one class per week for twelve weeks. Registrations are open across Southern Tasmania. 

Check out the link above or have a look at their brochure. 

The University of Tasmania received funding from the Australian Government. Views and conclusions expressed in this publication are those of its authors, and may not be the same as those held by the Department of Health.

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