Bushfires, social connectedness and mental health. The 2009 Victorian bushfires caused much loss of life, property destruction, and community disturbance. It is important for Promoting Better Health and Strengthening the Social and Economic Fabric that an accurate understanding is achieved of the factors that contribute to optimal recovery from natural disasters. This project will survey people affected by the fires over 5 years to both profile adaptation after the fires and to identify the i ....Bushfires, social connectedness and mental health. The 2009 Victorian bushfires caused much loss of life, property destruction, and community disturbance. It is important for Promoting Better Health and Strengthening the Social and Economic Fabric that an accurate understanding is achieved of the factors that contribute to optimal recovery from natural disasters. This project will survey people affected by the fires over 5 years to both profile adaptation after the fires and to identify the individual and community processes that influence outcome. This project being undertaken in partnership by academic, disaster management, health and community organisations will provide crucial information for shaping policy for disaster management in the years ahead.Read moreRead less
Time scarcity in Australian families: another inequity? The globalising economy, financial uncertainties and major democratic changes are all affecting family time. Parent's time is a resource on which children depend, but time scarcity has become a widespread problem for families. Our study helps focus policy attention on this problem. We deliver new methods to assess the experience of time scarcity in families, identifying those who are most likely to experience it, where they live, and how ti ....Time scarcity in Australian families: another inequity? The globalising economy, financial uncertainties and major democratic changes are all affecting family time. Parent's time is a resource on which children depend, but time scarcity has become a widespread problem for families. Our study helps focus policy attention on this problem. We deliver new methods to assess the experience of time scarcity in families, identifying those who are most likely to experience it, where they live, and how time scarcity affects them. This evidence can help support policy approaches to time, benefiting the twin economic and social policy goals of encouraging workforce participation while supporting the health and wellbeing of families.Read moreRead less
Living high but healthy: impacts of access to nature on health, wellbeing and effective functioning of inner city highrise residents. Impacts on the health, wellbeing and effective functioning of inner city highrise residents, resulting from differing levels of access to natural environments, will be studied. Stratified random sampling will be used to select a sample of 600 residents in Melbourne and Sydney, including highrise apartment owner-occupiers and tenants of highrise public housing dev ....Living high but healthy: impacts of access to nature on health, wellbeing and effective functioning of inner city highrise residents. Impacts on the health, wellbeing and effective functioning of inner city highrise residents, resulting from differing levels of access to natural environments, will be studied. Stratified random sampling will be used to select a sample of 600 residents in Melbourne and Sydney, including highrise apartment owner-occupiers and tenants of highrise public housing developments. Both groups will include people with differing levels of access to green spaces. Questionnaires based on validated psychometric scales, and qualitative semi-structured interviews will be used to collect data, which will be analysed to assess the impacts of access to nature on health, wellbeing and effective functioning.Read moreRead less
Improving young people's online safety when talking about suicide. This project aims to improve the safety and quality of online communication about suicide by young people. Suicide is the leading cause of death among young Australians and rates continue to rise. One commonly cited explanation for this is the way in which young people use social media to communicate about suicide. This project will directly address this by testing the impact of a set of evidence-informed guidelines and campaign ....Improving young people's online safety when talking about suicide. This project aims to improve the safety and quality of online communication about suicide by young people. Suicide is the leading cause of death among young Australians and rates continue to rise. One commonly cited explanation for this is the way in which young people use social media to communicate about suicide. This project will directly address this by testing the impact of a set of evidence-informed guidelines and campaign materials that target young people’s capacity to communicate about suicide safely on social media. Expected outcomes of this project include increased online safety for young people. This study also has national and international significance for the social media industry and the safe governance of their platforms. Read moreRead less
Facilitating the transfer of training through values clarification. Mental health service workers who attend training programs seldom transfer that training into routine practice. This is at considerable cost to health services, patients and the community. This research program aims to improve skills transfer by supplementing training with a values-based intervention and ongoing coaching. By helping staff connect their training experience with important personal values we believe they will be mo ....Facilitating the transfer of training through values clarification. Mental health service workers who attend training programs seldom transfer that training into routine practice. This is at considerable cost to health services, patients and the community. This research program aims to improve skills transfer by supplementing training with a values-based intervention and ongoing coaching. By helping staff connect their training experience with important personal values we believe they will be more likely to use their new skills in routine practice, will engage in better health care will be more satisfied and less burnt out, and will be less likely to leave their jobs. It will help with future values-based interventions to improve workforce development initiatives in a range of Australian workplaces.Read moreRead less
Special Research Initiatives - Grant ID: SR0354823
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$10,000.00
Summary
National network for the study of cognitive processes and treatment across the phases of schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is associated with great costs to the community and individual. Controlled studies have demonstrated Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) is efficacious in treating symptoms of schizophrenia. Studies of cognitive processes have also advanced understanding of psychotic phenomena. This initiative affords the opportunity to
1) Improve treatment efficacy by developing, testing and appl ....National network for the study of cognitive processes and treatment across the phases of schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is associated with great costs to the community and individual. Controlled studies have demonstrated Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) is efficacious in treating symptoms of schizophrenia. Studies of cognitive processes have also advanced understanding of psychotic phenomena. This initiative affords the opportunity to
1) Improve treatment efficacy by developing, testing and applying theoretically-driven models of psychotic symptoms.
2) Disseminate the findings of research on CBT for psychotic disorders in clinical settings by (a) training the work-force, and (b) facilitating CBT delivery in routine practice.
3) Apply CBT in various settings with a variety of psychotic populations to test its effectiveness in routine clinical settings.
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Mental health, job quality and workforce participation: evidence from population health research to address complex problems and conflicting policies. Mental disorders such as depression are a major cause of disability. Improving mental health can increase productivity and workforce participation. However, the psychosocial quality of work is a factor that overlays the relationship between work and health. Poor quality work (for example, unreasonable time pressure, insecurity) increases the risk ....Mental health, job quality and workforce participation: evidence from population health research to address complex problems and conflicting policies. Mental disorders such as depression are a major cause of disability. Improving mental health can increase productivity and workforce participation. However, the psychosocial quality of work is a factor that overlays the relationship between work and health. Poor quality work (for example, unreasonable time pressure, insecurity) increases the risk of poor mental health, absenteeism, and exit from the workforce. This project will analyse data following people over time to investigate the long-term health and employment consequences of poor psychosocial job quality, and consider the special case of mature age workers. It will identify those individuals at greatest risk, and factors that can buffer against the adverse effects of poor quality work.Read moreRead less
An Investigation of Intersubjectivity: Music Therapy and Hospitalised Infants. A contingent relationship is vital for normal infant development. The Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, which supplies life-saving modern medical technology to very sick infants, is also an environment where contingency is rarely available to the infant . In this environment, a Music Therapist ?improvising? with the infant, can re-introduce contingency to the infant, and encourage infant self-regulation. This project inv ....An Investigation of Intersubjectivity: Music Therapy and Hospitalised Infants. A contingent relationship is vital for normal infant development. The Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, which supplies life-saving modern medical technology to very sick infants, is also an environment where contingency is rarely available to the infant . In this environment, a Music Therapist ?improvising? with the infant, can re-introduce contingency to the infant, and encourage infant self-regulation. This project investigates the efficacy of a Music Therapy intervention in improving infant health, and micro-analyses the interaction between infant and therapist in order to further understand the nature of the Communicative Musicality of the interaction.Read moreRead less
Borderline Personality as Social Phenomena. Mental disorders attract social stigma and those diagnosed are widely misunderstood. This project aims to collect and analyse accounts of people living with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) - mainly women - and perspectives of social support practitioners. The intended outcome is to provide a sophisticated understanding of BPD as a social phenomenon, develop sociological evidence based on lived experiences and generate Australian digital resources ....Borderline Personality as Social Phenomena. Mental disorders attract social stigma and those diagnosed are widely misunderstood. This project aims to collect and analyse accounts of people living with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) - mainly women - and perspectives of social support practitioners. The intended outcome is to provide a sophisticated understanding of BPD as a social phenomenon, develop sociological evidence based on lived experiences and generate Australian digital resources including narratives of BPD, creative outputs and practitioner perspectives. The anticipated goal of this project is to inform policy and community responses addressing stigma and marginalisation, and the improvement of social support for those affected by BPD.Read moreRead less
Transition to retirement by adults with chronic disabilities: increasing community capacity. This project will contribute to healthy, productive ageing by people with chronic disabilities. This group are living longer and will retire from their disability-specific supported employment and day program services. They then risk social exclusion, loneliness and associated poor health outcomes. This project will provide training and support to local community groups and voluntary work settings, to in ....Transition to retirement by adults with chronic disabilities: increasing community capacity. This project will contribute to healthy, productive ageing by people with chronic disabilities. This group are living longer and will retire from their disability-specific supported employment and day program services. They then risk social exclusion, loneliness and associated poor health outcomes. This project will provide training and support to local community groups and voluntary work settings, to increase community capacity to support this group to participate actively in and contribute to their community in retirement. This will result in increased participation by this group and improvements in their well-being. Training resources developed by the project will be available to disability service providers nationally.Read moreRead less