The Rehabilitation, Ageing and Independent Living (RAIL) Research Centre is located at Monash University’s Peninsula Campus and is part of the new National Centre for Healthy Ageing (NCHA), a centralised hub for innovation and transformation of care practices, based on the Mornington Peninsula.

Through our research and partnerships, RAIL and the NCHA deliver community impact by designing efficient support models, capable of serving people with complex mental and physical health conditions, and improving how people live with greater independence and quality of life across the lifespan.

The NCHA and RAIL Research Centre’s work aligns with the five Creative State 2025 pillars, with a particular focus on research, programs and policies that impact health and wellbeing for every Victorian. The Centre explicitly values the unique and collective cultures of diverse communities and supports their existence in physical spaces, public policies and investment, and in civic life – for this reason, we propose a satellite photographic exhibition, with aligned ‘community conversations’ (free public lectures we will facilitate) that showcases diverse communities, and design and creativity for civic good.

When thinking about the theme of NGV Design Week – ‘Design the World You Want’ – the NCHA and RAIL Research Centre’s missions are to build the evidence base of good design across the domains of physical (public spaces and buildings), service (healthcare, disability support, aged care), and social capital (friends, family) for mental and physical health and wellbeing, with the aim that activities our centres contribute to now will lead to healthier Australians in the future.

Our aim is to deliver an exhibition that provokes conversations and engagement of a broad community – across all ages – about ways that we can together collaborate to create a better and healthier future.

For details, see https://www.monash.edu/medicine/spahc/rail and https://www.monash.edu/medicine/national-centre-for-healthy-ageing/about-us