Members
The Dementia Law Network is open to wide membership from researchers, clinicians, legal practitioners, people living with dementia, and those who support them. To find out more, please get in touch via the Contact page.
Hayley Bennett
Dr Christopher Ryan
Lenni Duffield
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Hayley has worked as a barrister since 2009. She specialises in health law across jurisdictions including: Equity; Family Provision; Public Law; Protective (guardianship and financial management); Coronial Inquests and other Commissions of Inquiry.
Dr Ryan is the Director of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry at Sydney's St Vincent's Hospital, where he is an Adjunct Associate Professor of the University of New South Wales. He is an Associate of Sydney Health Ethics. Prior to taking up his role at St Vincent's in June 2022, he had been the Director of Consultation-Liaison at Westmead for almost three decades. Though his work is primarily clinical, he maintains an active research programme and a keen interest in medical education. He is Chair of both the NSW Section of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatryand the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists Committee for Advanced Training in Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry. He is on the National Advisory Board of the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry and a member of the Editorial Committee of Australasian Psychiatry.
Lenni Duffield has held senior roles and provided business consulting services in health and community service sectors for over 20 years. She has qualifications in business, management and leadership, community sector management and is currently in the process of completing her Master in Business Administration with the Australian Institute of Management, with whom she is an Associate Fellow. Lenni was appointed the inaugural CEO of Huntington’s Australia in December 2022, after being the CEO of Huntington’s WA since June 2018.
Prof Clement Loy
Dr John Ward
Anthea Kennedy
Professor Clement Loy is a cognitive neurologist who has been caring for people with Huntington Disease (HD) and other familial dementias, for over 20 years. He leads a quaternary referral service and research group for people with HD at Westmead Hospital, and is Head of School and Dean for Macquarie Medical School, Macquarie University.
Dr John Ward is a geriatrician with a major interest in the assessment and management of dementia in the community. He is the Co-Chair of the Hunter Ageing Alliance which aims to make Newcastle and Lake Macquarie into age-friendly communities. Among the strategies being tackled are a comprehensive range of exercise programs called Active, Stronger, Better; the Housing for Older Persons Project; a dementia plan for the Hunter; and a face-to-face information portal. John was the Convenor of the Hunter Dementia Alliance and the Reference Group on Potential Elder Abuse.
Anthea commenced practice in 1992 and became an accredited specialist in Wills & Estates Law in 1998. She was a member of the Wills & Estates Law Advisory Committee from 2006 and was the Chair of that Committee until 2021. Anthea is a committee member of the Society of Trust & Estate Practitioners. Anthea has considerable experience in contested estate litigation, trusts litigation and estate administration. Anthea is listed in the 2022 Doyles Guide’s lists as a Pre-eminent Wills & Estates Litigation Lawyer for both NSW and Australia, and as a Pre-eminent Wills & Estates Succession Planning Lawyer in NSW.
Samantha Loi
Associate Professor Samantha Loi is an old age psychiatrist and neuropsychiatrist working at the Royal Melbourne Hospital Neuropsychiatry service and Department of Psychiatry at the University of Melbourne. She is the current Victorian Chair of the Faculty of Psychiatry of Old Age of the Royal Australian New Zealand College of Psychiatrists and Chair of the Young-Onset Dementia Special Interest Group.
Julane Bowen
Julane has operated at a strategic level across various entities of the NSW public sector for over 30 years, primarily in contract roles in recent years. But her professional experience was not enough to prepare her for dealing with the Police, clinicians, and the public sector bureaucracy when her husband fell ill. He was eventually diagnosed with behavioural variant Frontotemporal Dementia (bvFTD). This lived experience impassioned Julane to ensure others living with dementia do not suffer the same challenges as her family. This goal led her back to study. Having completed an Honours Law Degree, Julane is passionate about contributing to meaningful law reform, systemic change, and advocating for all those living with dementia.
Dr Sascha Callaghan
Dr Sascha Callaghan is a researcher at the University of Technology Sydney, in health law and ethics. Sascha has extensive experience in scholarly research and policy advice in mental health and cognitive impairment - and the interaction of legal processes and institutions with these conditions. Sascha has particular expertise in mental capacity and health care decision making and has contributed to numerous legislative reviews and policy consultations on these issues. Sascha is a member of the Ethics of Clinical Practice Committee for Sydney Local Health District and is involved in a number of research collaboration networks including the Sydney Health Policy Network and the UTS Aging Research Collabortive. She was also the founder and lead researcher in the Sydney Neuroscience Network on intersections between neuroscience, law and ethics at the University of Sydney.
Dr Bronwyn Morkham
Dr Bronwyn Morkham is an experienced individual and systemic advocate who is passionate about ending the inappropriate placement of younger disabled Australians in residential aged care. As the National Director of the Young People In Nursing Homes National Alliance, she has worked with state and federal governments in health and disability systems policy and practice reform and written and coauthored policy papers on the development and integration of multisystem service responses involving housing, health, mental health, justice and disability/NDIS services. As well as collaborating with leading dementia organisations and government policy makers to describe a system of care and a “roadmap of service responsibilities” for people living with young onset dementia, Bronwyn is working with family members, clinicians and a disability service provider to codesign a specialist young onset dementia residential service in suburban Melbourne. Bronwyn directed the Alliance’s groundbreaking promotion of a social insurance model for disability services that became the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) and continues to work with state and federal jurisdictions on the systemic and policy reforms to achieve the federal government’s Younger People In Residential Aged Care Target of no younger person living involuntarily in residential aged care by 2025.
John Anderson PhD
John Anderson PhD is a Professor in the School of Law & Justice at the University of Newcastle, NSW. He has extensive practical and academic experience in the areas of criminal law and evidence. He has published widely on criminal law and justice issues, principally in relation to sentencing and criminal procedure. His research focuses on matters relating to equity and fairness in sentencing, which extends to sentencing options, restorative justice and practice, homicide offenders, life imprisonment, parole and recidivism. John is also involved in multi-disciplinary research as a Chief Investigator on the ARC funded project Taking Action: increasing advance personal planning by older community-dwelling adults. This is a community participation project focusing on the legal rights of older persons to discussing and documenting their financial, health and personal preferences. The project develops, implements and evaluates a community action model for the uptake of advanced personal planning. He has also worked on research projects investigating elder abuse and contributing to the development of Identifying and Acting on Elder Abuse: A Toolkit for Legal Practitioners in 2017/18. Other projects include collaborative and participatory research with the Global Coalition on Life Imprisonment and Life Imprisonment Worldwide through Penal Reform International and the Human Rights Law Centre, University of Nottingham, UK. These projects focus on the nature and extent of the ultimate punishment of life imprisonment and the human rights of life sentence prisoners. Further, John continues to work with the Hunter Restorative Community through community engagement and community participation in relation to restorative justice and practice in various settings, including the criminal justice system, education and health.
Dr Amee Baird
Dr Amee Baird is a clinical neuropsychologist with over 20 years experience in clinical and research positions. She has a private practice in Newcastle and is a member of the NSW Guardianship and Mental Health Review Tribunals. Her clinical experience with people with dementia facing the criminal justice system led her to undertake a Juris Doctor and Diploma of Legal Practice at the University of Newcastle, which she will complete in 2024.
Dr Andrew Gleason
Dr Andrew Gleason is a neuropsychiatrist and psychogeriatrician with extensive experience in diagnosing and treating neurocognitive disorders. He is Head of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry at Concord Repatriation General Hospital where he works in the Young-onset Dementia Clinic. He also runs Huntington’s disease and psychogeriatrics outreach clinics in Northern Tasmania. He has been an investigator in over 20 clinical trials of Alzheimer’s disease therapeutics, is an Honorary Principal Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne, and is a member of the COMBAT-AD research group at Macquarie University. He previously worked as a Senior Specialist in Neuropsychiatry at the Victorian Statewide Progressive Neurological Diseases Service, at the Alfred Health Cognitive Decline and Memory Service, and as Head of Aged Psychiatry Research at Alfred Health.
Mirelle D'Mello
Mirelle is a registered psychologist and research assistant with the FRONTIER Research Clinic at the University of Sydney. She has worked with people with dementia for over 10 years and has a particular interest in providing psychosocial support to dementia carers and their families. She facilitates FTD support groups in conjunction with Dementia Australia and is a member of the Australian Frontotemporal Dementia Association. She has also provided research assistance on the project investigating criminal risk behaviours among people with dementia.
Jillian McMillan
Jillian is a clinical neuropsychologist with over 10 years experience in assessment and diagnosis of dementia in clinical settings, with a particular interest in early onset and atypical syndromes of dementia. She is currently working in private practice and sees patients for clinical and medico-legal purposes.
Jaden Ametson
Jaden is a paralegal and legal research assistant currently studying Law at the University of Technology Sydney. He has provided research assistance on work investigating perspectives on criminal risk behaviours among people with dementia.