Speaker Spotlight
Each week we will highlight some of our amazing speakers. This week we are introducing Dr Lidia Engel & Dr Katrin Gerber who are presenting the topic:
The forgotten mourners – Effects of bereavement on older people’s quality of life
Find out more about them below.
Introducing Dr Lidia Engel, Senior Research Fellow, Monash University & Honorary Fellow, National Ageing Research Institute
Dr Lidia Engel is a Senior Research Fellow at Monash University and an Honorary Fellow at the National Ageing Research Institute. She holds a 2-year Dementia Australia Post-Doctoral Fellowship, focusing on incorporating carer outcomes in cost-effectiveness analyses of dementia interventions.
As a health economist by training, she specialised in the measurement and valuation of quality of life and informal care, as well as the economics of mental health and ageing. She has advanced skills in undertaking economic evaluations, systematic literature reviews, psychometric validation studies and qualitative research.
Lidia has been successful in attracting research income as principal investigator and co-investigator, totalling more than $6.3 million, and has been an author on 53 peer-reviewed journal publications. She is currently a member of the EuroQol group, a membership officer for the Australian Health Economics Society, and sits on the scientific advisory committee of Ending Loneliness Together.
Introducing Dr Katrin Gerber, Research Fellow, National Ageing Research Institute, VIC
Dr Katrin Gerber is an end-of-life researcher with a PhD in Psychology from the University of Melbourne. She is a research fellow at the National Ageing Research Institute and an honorary fellow at the University of Melbourne.
Experienced in innovative, collaborative, mixed-methods research, her work encompasses a wide range of end-of-life experiences. This includes helping grieving older people after a significant bereavement, supporting end-of-life decision-making, and training clinicians in the recognition of dying. In recognition of her achievements, Dr Gerber was nominated for a National Palliative Care Award in 2019 and received the Robert Helme Award for Excellence in Research in 2021.
Through her work, Dr Gerber demonstrates her commitment to enhancing palliative care, bereavement support and mental health. Her passion for these areas of research stems from her work as a hospice volunteer and her lived experience as a family caregiver.
It’s going to be an excellent presentation so come and join Dr Katrin Gerber & Dr Lidia Engel, and the rest of the speakers at the Conference in November – here
