Integrated Kids Hubs - Ensuring Equity of Access for Children. The Integrated Kids Hubs - Ensuring Equity of Access for Children project aims to determine if integrated Hubs are effective in increasing access to child and family services for disadvantaged urban and regional families with children aged 3 years and under, thus improving early identification of developmental vulnerability, parental wellbeing and capacity, and addressing unmet psychosocial needs. If these issues are not identified a ....Integrated Kids Hubs - Ensuring Equity of Access for Children. The Integrated Kids Hubs - Ensuring Equity of Access for Children project aims to determine if integrated Hubs are effective in increasing access to child and family services for disadvantaged urban and regional families with children aged 3 years and under, thus improving early identification of developmental vulnerability, parental wellbeing and capacity, and addressing unmet psychosocial needs. If these issues are not identified and addressed early, these children will go on to struggle in school and life. We will use a pragmatic trial design (meaning the research is embedded in our usual practice), determine the social return on investment, and establish what is needed to scale up the Hubs across NSW and Australia.Read moreRead less
Post retirement support solutions for people with intellectual disabilities and their parents/carers. The current generation is the first to contain a substantial number of people with intellectual disabilities who have survived to old age. Policy makers have yet to focus on their wellbeing following retirement from supported employment. Evidence cited by agencies such as Centacare, the Industry Partner, indicates that these older people and their ageing parents experience severe disadvantage an ....Post retirement support solutions for people with intellectual disabilities and their parents/carers. The current generation is the first to contain a substantial number of people with intellectual disabilities who have survived to old age. Policy makers have yet to focus on their wellbeing following retirement from supported employment. Evidence cited by agencies such as Centacare, the Industry Partner, indicates that these older people and their ageing parents experience severe disadvantage and worry about retirement. The project aims to redress this situation by investigating ways of preparing people for retirement and mechanisms for enabling supported employment agencies to provide services and supports that optimise post retirement wellbeing.Read moreRead less
The emotional and social burden of caring for a young child with complex health needs. The National Agenda for Early Childhood and the Stronger Families and Community Strategy provide a framework for achieving efficient and effective outcomes in early childhood. This project will contribute to those strategies by gaining an understanding of the currently unknown issues faced by the group of families of young infants and children with complex health needs in a variety of geographic, community and ....The emotional and social burden of caring for a young child with complex health needs. The National Agenda for Early Childhood and the Stronger Families and Community Strategy provide a framework for achieving efficient and effective outcomes in early childhood. This project will contribute to those strategies by gaining an understanding of the currently unknown issues faced by the group of families of young infants and children with complex health needs in a variety of geographic, community and service settings, and the government supported services required. The identification of risk and resilience factors will enable the early detection of children at 'high-risk' and provide the opportunity to implement preventative and early intervention programs.Read moreRead less
Model of care: A family focussed approach to promote child protection. Childhood neglect and abuse is an issue for all Australians. Models of best practice for child protection services are essential to protect the well-being of these children. This project will draw upon information from consumers and workers to provide a framework for a sustainable model of best practice for child protection that is transferable to other settings. A further benefit of this study is that it will provide insight ....Model of care: A family focussed approach to promote child protection. Childhood neglect and abuse is an issue for all Australians. Models of best practice for child protection services are essential to protect the well-being of these children. This project will draw upon information from consumers and workers to provide a framework for a sustainable model of best practice for child protection that is transferable to other settings. A further benefit of this study is that it will provide insight into occupation health and safety issues associated with working in long term relationships with vulnerable families. Read moreRead less
Cluster randomised control trial of an early childhood literacy intervention to improve literacy and language outcomes in preschool aged children. Reading failure disproportionately affects disadvantaged communities in Australia, with nearly 40% of poor children failing to read at the minimum reading benchmark in Grade three. Of more concern is the disturbing trend indicating that prior to first grade, socioeconomic status (SES) differences also exist in important antecedents of reading such as ....Cluster randomised control trial of an early childhood literacy intervention to improve literacy and language outcomes in preschool aged children. Reading failure disproportionately affects disadvantaged communities in Australia, with nearly 40% of poor children failing to read at the minimum reading benchmark in Grade three. Of more concern is the disturbing trend indicating that prior to first grade, socioeconomic status (SES) differences also exist in important antecedents of reading such as letter knowledge and phonological processing skills, yet there remains no universal program to promote early language and literacy practices in the primary care setting. We propose a cluster randomised controlled trial to evaluate the efficacy of a multi injection intervention to improve literacy outcomes of children in disadvantaged communities.Read moreRead less
Psychosocial and economic impacts of rare diseases on Australian children, families and health professionals. Rare childhood diseases have enormous impacts on children and families; health services, and health professionals. This project will enable Australia to lead the international research effort by using a coordinated approach to study the impacts of rare diseases in order to improve psychosocial, health and economic outcomes for children and families.
Negotiating the Challenge of Cultural Diversity in Children's Health Care: The Australian Context. The increasing population of culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) Australians creates challenges which research to date has only partially identified and addressed. In particular, family dynamics, parenting practices and culturally specific beliefs regarding illness in childhood influence and at times severely inhibit effective access to all aspects of our health care system. Employing qual ....Negotiating the Challenge of Cultural Diversity in Children's Health Care: The Australian Context. The increasing population of culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) Australians creates challenges which research to date has only partially identified and addressed. In particular, family dynamics, parenting practices and culturally specific beliefs regarding illness in childhood influence and at times severely inhibit effective access to all aspects of our health care system. Employing qualitative and quantitative methods, this project will generate Australian evidence-based research by mapping the range of cultural practices at the interface of health service provision, providing culturally appropriate and relevant data to inform policy, planning and resourcing of health services for CALD children and parents/carers in NSW.Read moreRead less
Disaster risk reduction practices that leave nobody behind. This project aims to answer critical questions about how to assist people with disabilities (PWD) in disasters, what their support needs are and how they might help themselves to better prepare for disasters. Significance includes coupling a person-centred emergency preparedness tool with cross-sectoral processes to collect and use data about the support needs of PWD in emergencies, increase cross-sector communication and collaboration ....Disaster risk reduction practices that leave nobody behind. This project aims to answer critical questions about how to assist people with disabilities (PWD) in disasters, what their support needs are and how they might help themselves to better prepare for disasters. Significance includes coupling a person-centred emergency preparedness tool with cross-sectoral processes to collect and use data about the support needs of PWD in emergencies, increase cross-sector communication and collaboration between emergency managers and community services, and improve equitable access for PWD to community-level disaster risk reduction (DRR). The expected outcome will be the co-design of effective mechanisms that state & federal decision makers can use to scale-up disability-inclusive DRR across Australia.Read moreRead less
Meals on Wheels: building towards a new social experiment for our times. This project contributes directly to the National Research Priority, promoting and maintaining good health: ageing well, ageing productively, through developing evidence-based knowledge on which to build future volunteer business models. With the rapid ageing of the Australian population, it is imperative that volunteer-based organisations, such as Meals on Wheels, innovate to continue to deliver essential community service ....Meals on Wheels: building towards a new social experiment for our times. This project contributes directly to the National Research Priority, promoting and maintaining good health: ageing well, ageing productively, through developing evidence-based knowledge on which to build future volunteer business models. With the rapid ageing of the Australian population, it is imperative that volunteer-based organisations, such as Meals on Wheels, innovate to continue to deliver essential community services in a sustainable and cost-effective way. Meals on Wheels is integral within community care for frail, older people and those with disabilities, keeping people in their own homes and out of institutional care. Using national and international examples, the research has the potential to be adopted by the broad community services sector in Australia.Read moreRead less
Development of a comprehensive model and programmed intervention for emotion processing deficits in childhood-onset mental health problems. This research is in the National Research Priority, promoting and maintaining good health. Mental health problems cost Australia millions of dollars every year as well as creating immeasurable social adversity for individuals and families. The proposed research represents a significant step towards reducing these costs and improving the effectiveness of earl ....Development of a comprehensive model and programmed intervention for emotion processing deficits in childhood-onset mental health problems. This research is in the National Research Priority, promoting and maintaining good health. Mental health problems cost Australia millions of dollars every year as well as creating immeasurable social adversity for individuals and families. The proposed research represents a significant step towards reducing these costs and improving the effectiveness of early intervention and prevention. The research will lead to improvements in methods for early detection of child psychopathology with potential for implementation in both community health and educational services nation-wide. The research partnership will build Australia's capacity for innovative research in the development, early intervention and treatment of mental health problems.Read moreRead less