Dr Lenore de la Perrelle

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

College of Nursing and Health Sciences

place Bedford Park
GPO Box 2100, ADELAIDE, SA, 5001

With a background in social work and human service management, Lenore is focused on improving services and the quality of life of older people, those living with dementia, and their carers. Since graduating with a Masters degree in policy and administration and a PhD in research translation, Lenore has worked as a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow in ARIIA, in older people's mental health and in ELDAC on end of life care in Aged care.  Her research uses co-design to identify priorities for older people and health professionals, and to implement evidence-based practice in care and health services. She develops innovative programs to pilot and evaluate meaningful activities and inclusion in arts, exercise and social activities. Her current research on improving end-of-life care has identified the need for better communication between staff and family carers and an improved understanding of the diverse needs of older people and aged care staff. 

Qualifications

Lenore holds a BA in Social Work from University of SA 1980 , M(Pol Admin) 1997, and a PhD from Flinders University 2021

Honours, awards and grants

Prior to her academic work Lenore won numerous awards for her project work in Dementia Champions training,  Partnership in Creative Arts, innovative Arts and Health programs and Palliative Dementia Care education and implementation. Since 2018, she has been awarded the Robert Penhall award for best student presentation at the AAG SA conference in 2019.

Key responsibilities

As a Research Fellow with ARIIA from 2022,  Lenore was responsible for developing capacity and partnerships with Aged Care staff, industry and researchers to translate knowledge to innovate and solve aged care problems.  These partnerships focussed on online teaching of implementation strategies, coaching and co-design of solutions to implement evidence based dementia care, restorative care and chronic condition management, oral and visual health.  She then supported these partnerships to apply for grants and implement their innovations. Her research identified factors influencing implementation of innovation in aged care, the role of leadership, adaptation and co-design in aged care research and the need for capacity building in a resource constrained sector. In the Institute for Mental Health and Wellbeing at Flinders University in 2023, Lenore coordinated an implementation and evaluation pilot program to improve screening and access to mental health support for older people receiving home care in Victoria. She was involved in developing the protocol, ethics applications, co-design, consumer involvement in the steering group, developing staff training, data collection methods, analysis, evaluation and writing the manuscript which is under review. Since her appointment to ELDAC in 2024,  she became a member of the Research Centre for Palliative Care Death and Dying, undertaking project work to support aged care staff to improve end of life care, developing communication strategies with family members and apply inclusive and respectful end of life care for diverse groups of older people and a diverse workforce. She develops ethics applications for evaluation studies on the projects undertaken, gathers data from aged care staff who have used the project resources and publishes results identifying how resources influence practice in aged care.