SENSEcog Aged Care
SENSEcog aged care: Hearing and vision support to improve quality of life for people living with dementia in residential aged care
Quite often people living with dementia in aged care also have hearing or vision loss. This can be hard to detect because symptoms can be masked by the presence of dementia.
When hearing and vision problems are not detected or are poorly managed, people’s quality of life can be impacted and communication difficulties can be exacerbated, resulting in greater dependency, confusion, and challenging behaviour. Therefore, it’s important that people living with dementia in Australian aged care homes have access to high quality hearing and vision care.
This study has 2 phases; the first phase will involve adapting the SENSE-Cog sensory support intervention for people living in Australian aged care homes; and the second phase will involve implementing this in Australian aged care homes and measuring its impact on the quality of life of residents and their carers.
Phase 1
To improve residents’ hearing and vision, we propose a ‘sensory support intervention’ involving:
- training staff to detect sensory problems
- regular hearing and vision screening and assessment
- access to hearing and vision devices (e.g., hearing aids, glasses)
- improving the sensory environment (e.g., lighting, noise reduction)
- the establishment of sensory care pathways.
To ensure the intervention can be successfully implemented into Australian aged care homes, we'll explore some of the challenges aged care staff are likely to face when implementing the support intervention and address these. The intervention will subsequently be co-designed with input from people living with dementia, family members, aged care staff, and hearing and vision care professionals.
Phase 2
Once we have adapted the sensory support intervention, we will be implementing it in several aged care homes in Australia. We will be evaluating:
- the feasibility, acceptability and tolerability of the intervention for people living with dementia
- the impact of the intervention on residents’ quality of life and wellbeing; functional ability; and sensory environment
- the impact of the intervention on carers’ quality of life, well-being and relationship with the person living with dementia
Project lead:
Investigators:
Carly Meyer
Naomi Rose
Najwan El-Saifi
Megan Campbell
Dayna Cenin
Collette Browning
Chyrisse Heine
Emma Scalans
Gerald Liew
Hamid Sohrabi
Iracema Leroi
John Newall
Johanna Westbrook
Kasia Bail
Lisa Keay
Melanie Ferguson
Reema Harrison
Ralph Martins
Tim England
Yuanyuan Gu
Partner Universities and Organisations
The University of Queensland
Trinity College Dublin
University of New South Wales
Murdoch University
Macquarie University
Federation University Australia
Brightwater
Community and consumer involved organisations
- Overseas surveys report high levels of hearing and vision impairments among people in aged care homes, but no similar information was available for Australia. In our analysis, we reported that 86% of residents had a hearing impairment, vision impairment or both. Those with both hearing and vision impairments had the poorest outcomes in terms of communication, functioning in daily life and cognition. The findings highlight that sensory impairments are common but often under-recognised in residential aged care, underscoring the need for routine screening, better access to hearing and vision services, and targeted support to improve residents’ quality of life, independence, and overall wellbeing.
Dawes, P., El-Saifi, N., Chicoteau, A., & Gray, L. C. (2026). Hearing, Vision, and Dual Sensory Impairment in Australian Long-Term Care: Prevalence and Impact. Journal of the American Medical Directors Association, 27(8).
- Via comprehensive reviews of international literature and detailed interviews with Australian hearing and vision care professionals and aged care providers, we identified that improving hearing/vision care in long-term care settings requires stronger organisational support, better staff education, enhanced multidisciplinary collaboration, and systems that facilitate routine access to hearing and vision services.
El-Saifi, N., Campbell, M. E., George, N., Keay, L., Kumaran, S., Meyer, C., ... & Dawes, P. (2026). Barriers and enablers to hearing service provision in aged care settings in Australia: perspectives from hearing clinicians. International Journal of Audiology, 65(5), 563-574.
Kumaran, S., Piano, M., Choo, Z., Liang, M., Dawes, P., Meyer, C., ... & Keay, L. (2026). Rewarding yet challenging: factors influencing domiciliary optometry services in Australian long-term care communities. Clinical and Experimental Optometry, 1-16.
Anantharaman, D., Meyer, C., Nisar, M., Kumaran, S., Keay, L., McAvoy, S., & Dawes, P. (2026). The ABCs of hearing and vision care in long-term care communities: A systematic review and behavioral systems map of actors, behaviors, and COM-B factors. The Gerontologist, 66(5), gnag020.
Anantharaman, D., Meyer, C., Keay, L., Kumaran, S., & Dawes, P. (2025). Topical review: Challenges and solutions for eye care in long-term care. Optometry and Vision Science, 102(2), 127-132.
- We then published our plan for a detailed evaluation of the benefits and implementation challenges for a hearing/vision support intervention that was co-designed with hearing/vision professionals, aged care workers and residents.
Meyer, C., El‐Saifi, N., Rose, N., Bail, K., Browning, C., Cenin, D., ... & Dawes, P. (2025). Protocol for a Field Trial of a Hearing and Vision Support Intervention for People Living in Long‐Term Care in Australia. Health Expectations, 28(1), e70175.