Development of an intervention to enhance rural and regional service delivery to human service clients. A proactive program managing organisational stress and isolation in rural community service organisations is urgently needed to reduce unplanned absences and costly staff turnover among professionals working in a difficult environment. The intervention program focuses on extremely high risk regional workers - professional staff having daily contact with potentially difficult clients (e.g., per ....Development of an intervention to enhance rural and regional service delivery to human service clients. A proactive program managing organisational stress and isolation in rural community service organisations is urgently needed to reduce unplanned absences and costly staff turnover among professionals working in a difficult environment. The intervention program focuses on extremely high risk regional workers - professional staff having daily contact with potentially difficult clients (e.g., persons suffering from neglect, abuse, drugs). Strategies at both organisational and individual levels will be aimed at preventing rather than merely reducing stress. An educational package will be developed, subjected to two cycles of process and outcome evaluation, and prepared for use in this and other regional/rural organisations.Read moreRead less
A Public Health Framework of Effectiveness: Evaluating the Framework for Telephone Counselling. The demand for telephone counselling is strong and while this form of counselling has face validity, there is no substantive research into its effectiveness for clients. This project aims to adapt the public health model to evaluate processes and outcomes of Lifeline - a generic telephone counselling service in Melbourne. The public health model of effectiveness, will, in turn, also be evaluated.
Research and action in medical practitioner wellbeing: Testing a conceptual model. Being a medical practitioner in general practice is a hazard to wellbeing. However, not all practitioners succumb. Factors that promote resilience as well as vulnerability have been identified and developed as a conceptual model. This research aims, firstly, to enhance this model by consulting directly with general practitioners. Secondly, this enhanced model will be evaluated on stratified samples within two soci ....Research and action in medical practitioner wellbeing: Testing a conceptual model. Being a medical practitioner in general practice is a hazard to wellbeing. However, not all practitioners succumb. Factors that promote resilience as well as vulnerability have been identified and developed as a conceptual model. This research aims, firstly, to enhance this model by consulting directly with general practitioners. Secondly, this enhanced model will be evaluated on stratified samples within two socio-economic regions and a rural area in Victoria. Thirdly, its heuristic value will be assessed by evaluating an intervention program based on the model. The outcome will help to enhance wellbeing and retain medical practitioners in under-resourced primary care settings.Read moreRead less
Integrated depression management: a trial of a new model of care in a low vision rehabilitation setting. The project will integrate depression management into Vision Australia services and evaluate the impact of this new model of care. We anticipate that this new approach will lead to sustained improvements in clients’ quality of life.