Reimagining strengths approaches to drug and alcohol care for young people. This project aims to advance the conceptualisation and practical application of strengths-based approaches in the youth alcohol and drug sector. These approaches provide a promising way forward for addressing substance use and disadvantage among young people, and are widespread in the sector, but lack a strong evidence base. The project will learn from excellence in Aboriginal strengths-based models, and draw on sociolog ....Reimagining strengths approaches to drug and alcohol care for young people. This project aims to advance the conceptualisation and practical application of strengths-based approaches in the youth alcohol and drug sector. These approaches provide a promising way forward for addressing substance use and disadvantage among young people, and are widespread in the sector, but lack a strong evidence base. The project will learn from excellence in Aboriginal strengths-based models, and draw on sociological frameworks, to generate evidence on which to build more relevant responses for disadvantaged young people. This will provide significant benefit to service providers and policymakers by providing evidence about how to do strengths-based practice that is responsive to the needs of disadvantaged young people.Read moreRead less
Thinking about possibilities: Towards a unified cognitive framework. Thoughts about possibilities are fundamental to what makes us human. We routinely imagine what might happen in the future and reflect on how the past could have turned out differently. This psychology project aims to establish the circumstances in which children and non-human primates think about alternative possibilities, and to explain how they do it. The project expects to provide new knowledge of cognitive development and e ....Thinking about possibilities: Towards a unified cognitive framework. Thoughts about possibilities are fundamental to what makes us human. We routinely imagine what might happen in the future and reflect on how the past could have turned out differently. This psychology project aims to establish the circumstances in which children and non-human primates think about alternative possibilities, and to explain how they do it. The project expects to provide new knowledge of cognitive development and evolution, and to distinguish between simple and complex processes for thinking about possibilities. Expected benefits include progress towards a unified cognitive framework that may ultimately be leveraged to help people better reason about possibilities and bring them to fruition.Read moreRead less
Unravelling early self-regulation: A longitudinal study. National data show persistent issues in Australian children's social-emotional vulnerability. Research shows we have had limited success shifting these trajectories through current education and intervention efforts. In short, we understand enough about self-regulation to establish it as a priority target in early childhood, yet not enough to meaningfully alter current trajectories. This project will develop a ‘big picture’ theory of child ....Unravelling early self-regulation: A longitudinal study. National data show persistent issues in Australian children's social-emotional vulnerability. Research shows we have had limited success shifting these trajectories through current education and intervention efforts. In short, we understand enough about self-regulation to establish it as a priority target in early childhood, yet not enough to meaningfully alter current trajectories. This project will develop a ‘big picture’ theory of children’s self-regulation abilities and change, supported by Australia’s first longitudinal study of early self-regulation, from preschool into early primary school (ages 4 to 6). This robust theory of change is expected to better position ongoing education and intervention efforts to succeed.Read moreRead less
Know thyself: Development of metacognition in childhood and adolescence. This project aims to advance our understanding of the development of children and adolescents’ insight into their own thoughts and behaviours, or metacognition. Individual differences in metacognition impact learning and contribute to the educational achievement gap observed in many countries, including Australia. By combining analysis of existing international cohort data and state-of-the art developmentally appropriate ne ....Know thyself: Development of metacognition in childhood and adolescence. This project aims to advance our understanding of the development of children and adolescents’ insight into their own thoughts and behaviours, or metacognition. Individual differences in metacognition impact learning and contribute to the educational achievement gap observed in many countries, including Australia. By combining analysis of existing international cohort data and state-of-the art developmentally appropriate neuroimaging methodology, the project is expected to create new basic research knowledge. An intended benefit is the development and evaluation of an evidence-based intervention to enhance the metacognitive skills of primary and secondary school pupils and improve their achievement in mathematics.Read moreRead less
A critical public health examination of complementary self-medication in later life in indigenous, non-indigenous and CALD communities. This project aims to provide the first in-depth coordinated critical public health examination of an unregulated and 'covert' area of health and treatment seeking behaviour - complementary self-medication (CAM SM) use in later life. It will focus on healthy ageing and living with chronic illness and draw upon fieldwork with Indigenous, non-Indigenous and cultura ....A critical public health examination of complementary self-medication in later life in indigenous, non-indigenous and CALD communities. This project aims to provide the first in-depth coordinated critical public health examination of an unregulated and 'covert' area of health and treatment seeking behaviour - complementary self-medication (CAM SM) use in later life. It will focus on healthy ageing and living with chronic illness and draw upon fieldwork with Indigenous, non-Indigenous and culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities. This project aims to identify the challenges of, and possibilities for, 'covert' CAM SM use in later life. It will provide an evidence-base to inform safe, effective care and policy for older Australians and generate novel analyses to provide significant advances and new directions for public health scholarship with regards to chronic illness and community health in later life.Read moreRead less
Coverage with Evidence Development: Application to pharmaceutical reimbursement decisions. Some new medicines produce only a small improvement in health but have considerable costs. When these medicines are trialled on only small numbers of people, uncertainty results about the value of the medicine, which can create problems for decision makers. Funding medicines where there is uncertainty may lead to harm when medicines are later found to be unsafe, or waste millions of dollars when they are ....Coverage with Evidence Development: Application to pharmaceutical reimbursement decisions. Some new medicines produce only a small improvement in health but have considerable costs. When these medicines are trialled on only small numbers of people, uncertainty results about the value of the medicine, which can create problems for decision makers. Funding medicines where there is uncertainty may lead to harm when medicines are later found to be unsafe, or waste millions of dollars when they are overpriced relative to effectiveness. Not funding medicines may disadvantage patients in whom the medicines are effective. Methods to enable access to medicines while reducing uncertainty will offer significant benefit to patients, clinicians and taxpayers. Read moreRead less
A community-based approach to the problem of underage drinking. This project will aim to reduce the frequency and amount of alcohol consumption, and alcohol-related harms, among young people aged 12-17 years by addressing social norms regarding underage alcohol consumption. Using a multi-component intervention it will engage the Illawarra community in strategies to encourage and empower young people not to drink.
Healthy infant and young child diets from sustainable first-food systems. Breastfeeding, breastmilk and other first foods consumed during infancy and early childhood, are currently neglected in food systems research and policy action, despite their importance to establishing life-long dietary preferences, health and sustainability. This project addresses this gap, by developing a novel 'first-food systems' conceptual framework, describing global, regional and national changes in infant and young ....Healthy infant and young child diets from sustainable first-food systems. Breastfeeding, breastmilk and other first foods consumed during infancy and early childhood, are currently neglected in food systems research and policy action, despite their importance to establishing life-long dietary preferences, health and sustainability. This project addresses this gap, by developing a novel 'first-food systems' conceptual framework, describing global, regional and national changes in infant and young child diets, and generating end-user knowledge to generate political commitment for early-life nutrition. This research will deliver economic, social and environmental benefits for Australia and international communities, by helping to reduce the ill-health and environmental harms linked with unhealthy early-life diets.Read moreRead less
Improving health and criminal justice outcomes among Australia's offender population using a multi-disciplinary, all of government approach. Offender populations comprise some of the most marginalised and socially excluded individuals in society. With this comes poor health, engagement in risk behaviours and reduced social outcomes. Violence, mental health, infectious diseases, and substance misuse are all characteristics of offender populations and have a huge impact on the wider community. The ....Improving health and criminal justice outcomes among Australia's offender population using a multi-disciplinary, all of government approach. Offender populations comprise some of the most marginalised and socially excluded individuals in society. With this comes poor health, engagement in risk behaviours and reduced social outcomes. Violence, mental health, infectious diseases, and substance misuse are all characteristics of offender populations and have a huge impact on the wider community. The research programme linked to this application will collect new information aimed at reducing this impact and also develop a much needed intervention to reduce violent reoffending. Indigenous people are over-represented in the Australian prison system and will benefit from the work programme associated with this application.Read moreRead less
Epidemiologic and economic approaches to reduce the burden of depression and related chronic diseases in the workforce. Employers and governments alike are increasingly recognising that mental health impacts productivity, but many employers remain uninformed about the magnitude of the productivity consequences and what they can do about it. The ongoing individual and economic burden from depressive and anxiety disorders among working adults necessitates multi-disciplinary solutions. This series ....Epidemiologic and economic approaches to reduce the burden of depression and related chronic diseases in the workforce. Employers and governments alike are increasingly recognising that mental health impacts productivity, but many employers remain uninformed about the magnitude of the productivity consequences and what they can do about it. The ongoing individual and economic burden from depressive and anxiety disorders among working adults necessitates multi-disciplinary solutions. This series of studies will provide nationally and internationally significant new data to both inform understanding of the magnitude of the problem, and to provide cost-effective solutions to addressing it. Findings will directly inform workplace mental health promotion and prevention activities and be usable by employers, clinicians, and governments.Read moreRead less