Welcome to my website and thank you for your interest. My name is Delaune Pollard. I was born in Queensland, Australia, where I studied Occupational Therapy at the University of Queensland. Following graduation I worked in Brisbane for a few years before moving to Malaysia with my husband on his appointment as a Military Attaché at the Australian High Commission in Kuala Lumpur. Due to our particular circumstance in Malaysia, I had to put my career on hold. On our return to Australia, my husband was posted to Sydney and we lived in a military barracks environment. Living in an inner Sydney suburb, allowed me to resume my career as an occupational therapist at one of Sydney's major hospitals. 

Subsequently we returned to Queensland where I took up a position working with children, who were referred to me with developmental delay or learning problems. It was then that I first became interested in the study of cognition, particularly visuo-spatial processes. The low-socio-economic residential area in which I worked had many needs, the most important of which was the welfare of children. Working in paediatrics in this particular residential area became extremely frustrating, as the parents of the children could not be convinced that they needed to become involved in the home programs, so vital to the success of treatment for their children. Indeed it quickly became apparent to me that many of  the parents needed as much assistance as  their children. 

This prompted me to investigate and pursue the availability of employment opportunities in the field of mental health, a field that had always interested me. It was during my investigations that I noticed the similarity in the signs and symptoms evident in adults with those I had observed when working with children. In 1985, I chanced upon a book written by Claudia Allen titled, ‘Occupational Therapy for Psychiatric Diseases: Measurement and Management of Cognitive Disabilities”. It was exactly the sort of reference I had been searching for and it made me sit up and take notice. Suddenly, I realised that here was an answer to the types of behavior I had observed in many parents of the children I had assessed, and which was also evident in people with mental health disorders. 

In 1989 I was appointed Occupational Therapist in Charge at Queensland’s first forensic hospital, following which I took up the position as the Occupational Therapist in Charge at Queensland’s largest psychiatric hospital. It was in these appointments that I gained invaluable experience working in and studying the mental health specialty areas of psycho-geriatrics and forensics, while at the same time having the opportunity to participate in many research program opportunities. 

Since 1992 I have traveled frequently to America to study occupational therapy treatment and assessment of cognitive disabilities both under the guidance of Claudia Kay Allen, MA, OTR, FAOTA and her colleagues. I retain a close personal and working relationship with many Allen Cognitive Advisors throughout USA and I am a founding member of the Allen Cognitive Network. This organization has grown and now attracts members from Canada, New Zealand and Australia.

Presently, I am a director of a company specialising in the assessment and management of people who have deficits in functional cognition, and I provide an advisory service to the aged care and insurance industry and work as a consultant for Carers Queensland. On 19 and 20 October, 2007, another Mental Health Occupational Therapist and myself are running a course called "Functional Cognition and The impact this theory and practice has on Recovery Rehabilitation". Though I no longer work in the Health System, I have been a member of a District Health Council for many years and since July 2007, I  have been a member of the newly formed Health Community Council, and am an active participant in a range of community health matters.

My motivation to write “Midlife’s Challenge” was a desire to explain to the general public the debilitative consequences of cognitive disabilities, their impact on the everyday lives of so many elderly people and the anguish and stress endured by so many family members and friends who assist them on a daily basis. In this book I have placed emphasis on providing knowledge which will empower and give a sense of self-efficacy to middle-aged adult children, so they can acquire a greater understanding and the ability to cope with their elderly relatives’ unexpected decline in thinking and behavior.