| March 2019 Edition |
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 |  | | Welcome | 
As I write for the newsletter, we have just passed the landmark of having had over a quarter of a million enrolments into our Massive Open Online Courses since we began this initiative in 2013. I would like to express my gratitude to all of the staff in the Wicking Centre as well as colleagues across Australia and internationally for contributing to this milestone. My thanks also to the J.O. and J.R. Wicking Trust, under the auspices of Equity Trustees, for their support of the MOOCs. Their financial support allows us to offer the MOOCs for free through to 2022. The MOOCs have turned out to be a terrific social learning phenomenon, and staff throughout the Centre have very much appreciated how participants have shared their stories, experiences and views about dementia through the various discussion boards. So thanks also to the tens of thousands of MOOC participants who make this such a rich experience for us all. If you feel you may have benefitted as a past participant in the MOOC, we would be very grateful if you could encourage your friends and colleagues to sign up for the course. This would help us transform views and attitudes towards dementia as widely as possible.
|  | | Our Community |
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Alchemy Chorus and the UD MOOC | Come and say hello! | 300,00 enrolments by end 2019 |
With six members of the Alchemy Choir completing the Understanding Dementia MOOC in 2018, Canberra’s dementia-inclusive choir is now in its third year of turning music into gold. Read more | Come and visit us at some events across Australia we will be attending in the coming months. We’re heading out of our Centre in Hobart to talk to you about our FREE online education, our degree programs and current research projects. Event details | To date, there has been in excess of 250,000 enrolments in our free dementia MOOCs. We seek your support in helping us reach 300,000 enrolments by the end of 2019. Find out what you can do. Read more |
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| Our Education |
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Life-changing study | Enrol in our UD MOOC | Carmen's story |
Margaret Ferguson is a Bachelor of Dementia Care (BDC) graduate who followed her dream and changed careers after completing the MOOCs and degree program. Read about Margaret’s journey from academic linguist, to full-time Dementia Support Worker. Read more | There is still time to enrol in our FREE Understanding Dementia MOOC (Massive Open Online Course). Develop your knowledge in dementia care from our world experts – this course is free, open to everyone and delivered entirely online. Enrol here | 2018 Bachelor of Dementia Care graduate, Carmen Comas shares the impact of studying the degree in an open letter to the Wicking Dementia Centre. Read more |
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| Our Research |
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A participant's journey in the Healthy Brain Project | New pilot grant for 2019 | Meet Dr Kate-Ellen Elliott |
Judy Lennard describes her journey towards recommencing University study and how she become involved in the Tasmanian Healthy Brain Project. Read more | Researchers at the Wicking Dementia Centre have recently been successful in a $10,000 pilot grant through the Royal Hobart Hospital Research Foundation to fund a project looking into the identification of older people at risk of poor nutrition. Read more | Clinical Psychologist Dr Kate-Ellen Elliott, a Researcher at the Wicking Dementia Centre, believes the social systems that make up our world need to be strengthened to ensure that older people can live well – and this includes the enhancement of health and social care. Read more |
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| News from the Community | 
Menzies MS MOOC set to launch
Recently the Wicking Dementia Centre collaborated with fellow University of Tasmania colleagues at the Menzies Institute for Medical Research, to develop and deliver a new MOOC, ‘Understanding Multiple Sclerosis (MS).’ This course was developed in partnership with MS Limited. This 6-week course is available for free and covers all aspects of Multiple Sclerosis and is based on the highly successful ‘Understanding Dementia’ MOOC.
Read more
| | Help us keep dementia education free | 
Philanthropy vital to changing lives
The Wicking Dementia Centre was established through significant funding from the J.O. & J.R. Wicking Trust (managed by Equity Trustees), and, today, philanthropy remains a founding principle that underpins the Centre’s mission and purpose.
Our vision is to transform the understanding of dementia across the community, in aged care and health systems, for people with dementia and their carers, and to inform new approaches to the prevention of dementia to reduce the age-related incidence of this condition.
Dementia is the primary public health issue of the 21st century. The ageing of the population world-wide will lead to an accelerating increase in dementia prevalence. We need your help to create knowledge and provide education to people globally, and to inform the wider population of risk factors for dementia so that we can reduce the numbers of people with dementia in the future. By donating to the Wicking Dementia Centre, you can help us reach those most in need of our free dementia education programs.
Make a donation today
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