Geriatric mental health

While Alzheimer’s Disease and dementia are the focal points for much study in relation to quality of life in older age, our scope of research is increasingly broad.

Indeed, the effects of anxiety and depression in later life, of nursing home interventions, of assistance animals, environmental stability, and the ability to drive safely and remain mobile are all factors being considered by our researchers.

Other projects consider the differing responses experienced by people with Parkinson’s Disease and how current treatments affect them in other ways, or how problems with processing language can be caused by a variety of afflictions in older age.

Our inroads in geriatric mental health are so profound that some researchers have had their work republished in more than two dozen languages and disseminated around the world.

Dementia and Neuro Mental Health Research Unit

The Dissanayaka Group facilitates a pipeline of clinical research programs focusing on finding better treatments, improving quality of life and quality of care for those afflicted by incurable, progressive brain diseases, as well as their families.

Stroke and aphasia

The Queensland Aphasia Research Centre (QARC) is dedicated to optimising the lives of people living with aphasia through research, service, and partnerships. It is the first of its kind in Australia.

Professor Gerard Byrne

Mayne Professor and Head of the Academy of Psychiatry within the Faculty of Medicine and Director of the Older Persons' Mental Health Service at the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital.

Professor Nancy Pachana

Clinical geropsychologist, neuropsychologist and professor in the School of Psychology, and co-director of the UQ Ageing Mind Initiative, providing a focal point for clinical, translational ageing-related research at UQ.

Associate Professor John O'Sullivan

Set up the Movement Disorders Clinical Service, and co-ordinated the Huntington's disease multidisciplinary clinic. Through these clinics he has established collaborations with local, interstate and international researchers in the fields of Parkinson's disease, movement disorders and neurodegenerative diseases.

Explore our groups

Meet some of our researchers