Rate My Professor Barbara Blundell

Associate Professor Barbara Blundell is a teaching and research academic in Social Work in the Curtin School of Allied Health, Faculty of Health Sciences at Curtin University. She earned her BSW (Hons) and completed her PhD in 2005 at Curtin University with a thesis entitled "Contextualising Human Rights: Residents' Perspectives in Residential Aged Care." Blundell's professional journey began during her social work degree when she worked as a carer in an aged care facility. After graduating, she served as an aged care advocate at Advocare, worked on social policy for older people, and contributed to the Alliance for the Prevention of Elder Abuse Western Australia. Since joining Curtin, she has advanced to Associate Professor and currently holds the position of Director of Graduate Research in the School of Allied Health. She is also a member of the Dementia and Ageing team in the enAble Institute.

Blundell's research interests center on ageing and disability issues, including care services, elder abuse, social policy, advocacy, and human rights. Over the past two decades, she has led research projects in partnership with organizations such as Advocare, the Older Persons Advocacy Network, Alzheimer’s WA, and Silver Chain, focusing on older people's lived experiences and service barriers to promote equity and improved care accessibility. Notable publications include "Exploring categories of family violence across the lifespan: A scoping review" (Warren et al., 2024), "Examination of the extent of elder abuse in Western Australia" (Clare et al., 2011), "'It's not fair': Custodial grandparents' access to services and supports in Australia" (Fernandes et al., 2021), "Addressing elder abuse in rural and remote communities: Social policy, prevention and responses" (Warren & Blundell, 2019), and "Elder abuse protocols: identifying key features and establishing evidence for their use and effectiveness" (Blundell et al., 2020). She regularly delivers advocacy training and speaks at conferences on elder abuse prevention. Her contributions have been recognized with a Fellowship from the Australian Association of Gerontology in 2020 and the Adam Sutton Crime Prevention Award in 2020.