ORCID Profile
0000-0002-7054-9811
Current Organisations
Tasmanian Government
,
University of Tasmania
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Publisher: Wiley
Date: 12-09-2022
Abstract: COVID‐19 has disrupted social and spatial life. In this work, I argue that such disruption provides an opportunity for all tiers of government to reassess collective priorities and reorient societal goals to work towards better health outcomes for all. I offer a systems thinking perspective to show how societal goals such as economic growth are supported by “system rules” created by governments—the same rules largely responsible for prevailing inequities and preventable chronic, noncommunicable diseases and conditions. The work is significant because it shows how the disruption caused by COVID‐19 changed deep system leverage points, highlighting places inside governmental systems susceptible and acceptable to change and revealing how systems can be reoriented. It draws on empirical data from one subnational jurisdiction of Australia. Specifically, in late 2020, 81 Tasmanian local government personnel shared views on erse governmental changes made in response to the pandemic. Most participants wanted those changes to continue because of their net benefits to health and social, economic, and environmental outcomes more broadly. They expressed overwhelming support for actions to improve the social determinants of health and communicable and noncommunicable disease prevention and management. I conclude that unless such efforts for change continue, poor health outcomes and health inequities are likely to be exacerbated and argue that a shared systems goal to create a wellbeing economy could reorient systems to achieve better health outcomes for all.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 25-05-2023
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 13-05-2023
DOI: 10.1007/S11213-023-09644-0
Abstract: Under national or state-based legislation, local governments are commonly required to prepare municipal health and wellbeing plans. Yet, the issues these plans aim to address are often complex, and programmatic planning approaches traditionally used by practitioners struggle to engage with such complexity as they assume these issues can be ‘solved’ in isolation. Systems thinking is increasingly being used as an approach to deal with those struggles more effectively, yet little is known about whether local governments and other stakeholders think systems approaches are feasible and acceptable in practice. This study tested a systems thinking approach to gauge if it could better address complex place-based health and wellbeing issues, such as to reduce noncommunicable diseases. Guided by a systems change framework, the approach comprised a facilitated systemic inquiry and rich picture process involving erse stakeholders in a remote municipality in the Australian state of Tasmania. Among the participants there was broad support for the systems approach tested and they thought it was effective for increasing systems thinking capacity, collaboratively revealing systemic issues, and identifying opportunities to address those issues. They valued the rich picture because it created shared understandings of local issues. The findings suggest more is needed from macro-level policy to support place-based stakeholders to undertake systems approaches in practice, which could result in more sustainable and effective systems change required to improve health and wellbeing outcomes. The findings have implications for theory, research, and practice across interdisciplinary fields concerned with placed-based systems change, especially in rural and remote municipalities.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 19-07-2023
Abstract: Globally, local governments face increasing service delivery demands and citizen expectations, including in relation to community health and wellbeing. Inter‐municipal cooperation is one strategy to respond to those demands. In Australia, however, there is limited empirical research about the types of inter‐municipal cooperation local governments engage in and about their perspectives on community health and wellbeing. Without such knowledge, limits are placed on strategies the sector can develop and deploy to collectively tackle complex issues that extend beyond municipal boundaries. Responding to that gap in research and those consequential challenges for strategy, we surveyed municipal personnel in all 29 local governments in the state of Tasmania and included questions to quantify inter‐municipal cooperation using social network analysis. Results show the extent to which local governments cooperate across seven domains and reveal that participants prioritised community health and wellbeing and described funding, collaboration, legislation, and systems thinking as ways to advance their contributions to that priority. We found social network analysis to be a useful method to measure inter‐municipal cooperation however, further research into how and why local governments collaborate across erse service types would help inform how those services can be enhanced, including for community health and wellbeing. Inter‐municipal cooperation is important for local governments to manage resources with increasing service delivery demands and citizen expectations. This Australian study shows how inter‐municipal cooperation can be quantified and articulated visually using social network analysis—a method that could measure changes over time and enable cross‐jurisdiction comparisons. In Tasmania: inter‐municipal cooperation occurs in distinct regional networks and more research about how and why these networks function across erse service types could inform service enhancement and those in local government want to advance their contributions to community health and wellbeing and need support in the form of funding, collaboration, legislation, and systems thinking capacity.
No related grants have been discovered for Michelle Morgan.