Events

The RAIL Research Centre is pleased to host a variety of events across its three streams of research. Browse through our past events or register to our upcoming events below.

If you would like to be on our mailing list and receive notifications on the upcoming RAIL events and monthly online forums, please join the RAIL network by completing the relevant form.

You can find more information on the different RAIL registration networks on the RAIL Partners, RAIL Members and Friends of RAIL pages.

Current & Upcoming Events

There is currently no planned event.

Past Events

Friends of RAIL event - February 2025

The RAIL Research Centre was pleased to host a Friends of RAIL event on Monday 10th February 2025 on the Monash University Peninsula Campus. The event featured brief presentations from the RAIL team and Friends of RAIL, a workshopping activity, and networking opportunities during afternoon tea. Attendees received a copy of the white paper developed from the 2023 Friends of RAIL network launch, which discusses challenges and opportunities across rehabilitation, ageing, and independent living. To access the Friends of RAIL white paper, please visit our publications page.

Friends of RAIL Launch Event - November 2023

On Thursday 2nd of November 2023, Professor Terry Haines (Head of the School of Primary and Allied Health Care at Monash University) led our official Launch of the Friends of RAIL network.

Friends include those people with their own personal experience of rehabilitation, ageing and independent living or disability care; family members and friends, including care partners; and others in the community interested in supporting our research. Friends are important to RAIL as they have first-hand experience with the target areas of research for our centre.

During the event, we were very fortunate to have presentations of key challenges and opportunities identified by three of our Friends, Vincent Rovtar, Coral Keren and Chris Le Cerf, across our three streams of RAIL, being Rehabilitation, Ageing and Independent Living. Our three Stream Leads also responded briefly to each of our Friends. Following a lovely lunch where new and existing Friends of RAIL were able to connect, the afternoon session involved interactive group discussions about challenges and opportunities across rehabilitation, ageing and independent living – building on the key points of Vince, Coral and Chris. Each table made notes on large post-it notes and the key points of discussion are currently being typed up and synthesised into a White Paper. This document will help provide a base to which our RAIL team can draw on, but also assist others in identifying some of the challenges and opportunities that are faced by individuals across ageing, disability and independent living, and rehabilitation. The White Paper will be made publicly available through our website once finalised. Stay tuned!

RAIL Short Course
Exercise to optimise balance, mobility and fall outcomes for older people - September 2023

On Monday 25^th September, the RAIL team led by Dr Sze-Ee Soh and Professor Keith Hill, ran their first short course on exercise to optimise balance, mobility and fall outcomes for older people at Monash University Peninsula campus. Course participants from a diversity of disciplines - ranging from physiotherapists through to occupational therapists, exercise physiologists and fitness instructors were highly engaged across the day. Sze-Ee and Keith, joined by Dr Melanie Farlie and Mrs Pek Hill took participants through a range of balance tests and exercises suited to incorporation into programs focused on fall prevention. The course finished off with a video contribution from Margaret Thomas, providing a consumer’s perspective on factors influencing older people’s engagement in exercise.

Participants evaluated the course as highly relevant to their learning needs and clinical practice and valued “the opportunity to practice balance tests and exercises” and having “access to presenters with high expertise”. The team plan to run this short course again in 2024!

Friends of RAIL Morning tea - June 2023

RAIL was pleased to host its first "Friends of RAIL" morning tea event on the Monash University Peninsula Campus on Thursday 1st June 2023. Friends of RAIL is a new network we have recently launched which include consumer and community members, such as people with their own lived experience across the areas of rehabilitation, ageing and/or independent living, and their families and friends.

The event was a great opportunity to meet and hear from Friends of RAIL on how RAIL should engage and collaborate with the network, how to best listen and work with our Friends across every stage of a research project to ensure RAIL's work is truly co-designed, and how we can ensure we provide accessible and inclusive knowledge sharing. If you know someone in the community who would like to be linked in with our Friends, please share the link to our Friends of RAIL registration form or alternatively ask them to contact us at spahc.rail@monash.edu.

Images show various viewpoints of the RAIL team presenting and engaging with Friends of RAIL, as well as our 4-legged attendee 'Wag' - a guide dog in training

Carer Knowledge Exchange Research Incubator 2023 - Satellite event with the RAIL Research Centre

The Rehabilitation, Ageing and Independent Living (RAIL) Research Centre proudly partnered with the Carer Knowledge Exchange to host a free satellite event as part of their Research Incubator event 2023 Making connections: Exploring carer health and wellbeing.

The Carer Knowledge Exchange Research Incubator event included a series of free hybrid sessions over three days from 16-18 May 2023. The aim of the Research Incubator event was to identify gaps in knowledge, research, and policy to inform future research directions and policy development and implementation in relation to improving the health and wellbeing of carers.

The satellite event / Victoria Symposium, hosted in partnership with RAIL, titled Understanding hidden carers and carer diversity, was held as an online event on 17^th May 2023. Invited speakers included:

Tamara Pearce, State-wide Sector Development Manager at Carers Victoria - Carers and service navigation
Dr Aislinn Lalor, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Occupational Therapy and Senior Research Fellow with the RAIL Research Centre at Monash University - "Some days are diamonds, some days are rocks": Older carers narratives to inform a Carers Clinic
Associate Professor Tania King, Australian Research Council (ARC) DECRA and Dame Kate Campbell Principal Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne - Invisible, unpaid and unrecognised understanding the mental health effects of being a young carer
Dr So Sin Sim, Lecturer, Monash University Occupational Therapy department - Immigrant mothers of children with disabilities
Professor Anne-Marie Hill, Senior Principal Research Fellow, School of Allied Health, WA Centre for Health & Ageing, The University of Western Australia - Supporting informal caregivers of older people after hospital discharge – The FECH+ trial

Rehabilitation, Ageing and Independent Living (RAIL) Research Centre Rehabilitation Forum and Coaching Workshop 2022

The RAIL Research Centre hosted a full day rehabilitation event on the Monash University Peninsula Campus on Thursday 1st December 2022.

The event included a half-day clinician coaching workshop titled Improve your coaching skills: An introductory workshop for rehabilitation professionals which was led by Dr Annie McCluskey and Mr Karl Schurr from StrokeEd and was followed but a Rehabilitation Forum with national and international speakers titled Putting the consumer at the heart of rehabilitation. The event concluded with the launch of the Rehabilitation, Ageing and Independent Living teaching and learning resource developed by Associate Professor Gabrielle Brand and James Bonnamy (Monash Nursing and Midwifery) in collaboration with RAIL.

The clinician workshop was engaging and very well received by the participants, and tied well with the Rehabilitation forum. The forum showcased some excellent research activity, and highlighted throughout the importance of consumer and community involvement, and engagement with people with lived experience relevant to research being undertaken, throughout the research journey from concept to implementation and dissemination.

The event was a success with over 60 people attending the forum! Thank you to all our presenters who delivered wonderful presentations!

RAIL & NCHA Melbourne Design Week 2022 Narrative Portrait Exhibition - Benefiting Everyone: Good Design Features for Healthy Ageing

The RAIL Research Centre, together with the National Centre for Healthy Ageing, was pleased to host a 2022 Melbourne Design Week satellite event on Monash Peninsula Campus from 17 - 25 March 2022. This event was called "Benefiting Everyone: Good Design Features for Healthy Ageing" and aligned with the Melbourne Design Week theme of "Design for Civic Good". The event included a free public talk, as well as a week-long portrait exhibition hosted on the Peninsula Campus. This exhibition focused on good design features of objects, buildings, designs and services that make people feel part of a community across the lifespan, provoking conversations and engagement of a broad audience about ways we can together collaborate to create a better and healthier future for all.

Invited speakers at the keynote event included the Chair of the Centre for Universal Design Australia, Dr Jane Bringolf, and the Mayor of Frankston City Council, Mayor Cr Nathan Conroy. There was also a presentation by the Head of Strategy at the St Kilda Football Club, Andrew Dick, on the new Healthy Futures Hub at Seaford Football Ground, which staff from the Monash School of Primary and Allied Health Care have led collaboration on with other community partners.

The narrative portrait exhibition was curated by Monash University School of Nursing and Midwifery Associate Professor Gabrielle Brand, with photography by Fred Kroh.

If you would like to read more, this event was written up in an article published in The Senior.

Left to Right: Dr Aislinn Lalor, A/Prof Libby Callaway, Prof David Copolov AO, Mr Andrew Dick, Mayor Cr Nathan Conroy, Dr Jane Bringolf, Prof Keith Hill, Dr Natasha Brusco, Prof Velandai Srikanth, A/Prof Gabby Brand at the Melbourne Design Week satellite event on Monash Peninsula Campus

The public photographic exhibition on Good Design Features for Healthy Ageing

Exploring Rehabilitation, Ageing & Independent Living:
RAIL Research Centre Symposium & Narrative Portrait Exhibition 2021

RAIL Symposium & Exhibition launch:
On Thursday 2nd December 2021, The Rehabilitation, Ageing and Independent Living (RAIL) Research Centre hosted a symposium and launch of photographic exhibition in Cube 37 at the Frankston Arts Centre, celebrating 2 years of the work of RAIL. The symposium included a range of national and international guest speakers, invited to share their professional and/or personal experiences of rehabilitation, ageing, disability and independent living. Presenters included:

Dr Ben Gauntlett and Dr Kay Patterson AO, the Disability and Aged Discrimination Commissioners at the Australian Human Rights Commission
Professor Julie Bernhardt (The Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health), Dr Amelia Crabtree (Alfred Health) and Professor Nicola Kayes (Auckland University of Technology)
Caleb Rixon (Founder of Genyus Network) and Emma Gee (Inspirational Speaker & Author)

The symposium was MC’ed by SPAHC Head of School, Professor Terry Haines, and included an introduction and overview of RAIL’s first two years by FMNHS Dean, Professor Chris Mitchell.

The event was a huge success and was followed by the launch of a debut photographic exhibition and written narratives curated by Associate Professor Gabby Brand, with the RAIL Research Centre team. This exhibition investigated consumer and community stakeholder perspectives on the intersections of health, ageing, rehabilitation and disability to build independent living, and findings from the work are now being used to inform the research vision and priorities of RAIL.

Rehabilitation, Ageing & Independent Living (RAIL) Residential Care Forum 2021

Recent research outcomes, and shaping research priorities for residential aged care into the future

RAIL hosted a very successful Residential care research workshop on 12 July 2021, with 70 registrants, and about half of those meeting in person at the Peninsula Kingswood Country Golf Club, Frankston.

Dr Kay Patterson AO, Age Discrimination Commissioner in the Australian Human Rights Commission provided an excellent keynote presentation on Human Rights and Aged Care, which set the scene for the rest of the day. Dr Valda Groves, Manager of the Public Sector Residential Aged Care Services (Department of Health) then provided an overview of some major developments occurring, in particular around new purpose built facilities from the state Government perspective. Associate Professor Dawn Mackey (Centre for Hip Health and Mobility, Simon Fraser University, Canada) then detailed from a flooring / falls injury prevention trial, which was followed by a series of speakers including topics of:

Working in partnership with residential aged care providers and staff in research;
Better quality of care: initiatives and implications for the care workforce;
Young People in Residential Aged Care in Australia: Current Policy, Evidence and Outcomes;
Exploring the impact and management of residents' limited English proficiency in residential aged care;
Factors that predict discharge destination for patients in a residential care based “transitional care program”: a multi-state prospective observational cohort study;
Staff culture and culture change, staff empowerment;
Trial of general practitioners being employed directly in nursing homes;
Exercise in residential care to reduce risk of falls.

A brief workshop at the end of the program discussed priorities for future research. The RAIL is now building on the discussions and networking that occurred during the workshop, to strengthen research activity and outcomes for all involved in residential care settings going forwards.