About Dr. Elaine Fielding
Dr Fielding received a PhD in Sociology with specialisations in Demography and Research Methods and Statistics in 1993. Since then, she has served as a methodological and statistical consultant on a large number of complex social research projects, especially those involving surveys.
In 2008, she took a position as a Senior Researcher at the Dementia Collaborative Research Centre at the Queensland University of Technology and is currently a Senior Research Fellow there.
In 2011-12, she led a national survey project to study usage of, and satisfaction with, respite services by carers of people with dementia in Australia.
Key Interests
She is currently involved in a project led by Dr Maria O’Reilly which tests a transition support intervention to improve the residential respite experience of people with dementia and their carers.
- Preparing carers of people with dementia living in the community for natural disasters: developing a guide for carers – The Carer Ready Guide (CaRed-Guide)
- A supervised walking program to reduce risky wandering: A feasibility study
- What is "A Good Day Out"? Working towards optimal day centre respite care and ways to measure it.
- Listening to preferred music to reduce risky aspects of wandering: A pilot study
- Capacity Building for Care Research (CBCR) Program
Other projects include:
- A knowledge translation project to produce materials (paper, online, etc.) to help carers be aware of, and choose between, respite choices (lead investigator);
- Carers’ experience of the transition period when the person with dementia they care for moves into permanent residential care (lead investigator–currently recruiting); and
- A large, national study of quality of life of people with dementia in residential care (supervisor of data management and statistical analysis).