Engaging the forgotten public health workforce. This Fellowship project aims to provide the first in-depth, coordinated, critical public health examination and application of consumer behaviour-informed methodology to examine health promotion and complementary medicine. The project aims to build on novel analyses and critical engagement with community members, health professionals and policymakers to advance public health scholarship of health information-seeking and chronic illness prevention. ....Engaging the forgotten public health workforce. This Fellowship project aims to provide the first in-depth, coordinated, critical public health examination and application of consumer behaviour-informed methodology to examine health promotion and complementary medicine. The project aims to build on novel analyses and critical engagement with community members, health professionals and policymakers to advance public health scholarship of health information-seeking and chronic illness prevention. It seeks to identify challenges and opportunities to improve Australian health promotion initiatives; provide an evidence-base to inform coordinated implementation of the National Preventive Health Strategy; and optimise the primary care workforce to benefit health promotion for Australians.Read moreRead less
Innovative solutions to primary care management of back pain. Each year in Australia over $1billion is spent on low back pain treatment. Part of the reason for this massive expenditure is that back pain is extremely common. Most existing treatments involve highly skilled practitioners and considerable cost to the patient. This program of research will look at evaluating simple, low-cost care for patients with back pain. It will also consider the delivery of back pain care by community pharmacist ....Innovative solutions to primary care management of back pain. Each year in Australia over $1billion is spent on low back pain treatment. Part of the reason for this massive expenditure is that back pain is extremely common. Most existing treatments involve highly skilled practitioners and considerable cost to the patient. This program of research will look at evaluating simple, low-cost care for patients with back pain. It will also consider the delivery of back pain care by community pharmacists, an approach not previously evaluated. Prevention of recurrent back pain will also be studied. Such methods of delivering care will provide enormous savings to the health system while still ensuring best practice care for the patient.Read moreRead less
Translational research in osteoarthritis: from epidemiological studies to clinical interventions. Currently the only treatment for osteoarthritis is to relieve pain. However, there are some factors that may affect the progression of this disease. This project will examine these factors including inflammation, metabolism, and physical inactivity, and find potential modifying therapies such as vitamin D supplementation for osteoarthritis.
Improving quality of life in chronic aphasia: reducing depression and increasing social connection and life participation through community aphasia groups. Aphasia, a communication disability resulting from brain injury and experienced by over 80,000 Australians, impacts significantly on social connection, well being and mental health. This program of research defines excellent community aphasia groups, an important preventative health measure and investigates their impact for Australians with a ....Improving quality of life in chronic aphasia: reducing depression and increasing social connection and life participation through community aphasia groups. Aphasia, a communication disability resulting from brain injury and experienced by over 80,000 Australians, impacts significantly on social connection, well being and mental health. This program of research defines excellent community aphasia groups, an important preventative health measure and investigates their impact for Australians with aphasiaRead moreRead less
Closing the gap in Aboriginal maternal and child health outcomes. This project will build the evidence base needed to design and implement effective strategies to close the gap in Aboriginal maternal and child health outcomes and reduce Indigenous disadvantage across the life course.
Enhancing linkage and exchange in a national research partnership to improve primary health care performance and outcomes for Indigenous peoples. This project will enhance current efforts to make high-quality primary health care services accessible to all Indigenous Australians. The work will result in widespread application of systematic and cutting-edge methods to enable health service staff and managers to review and continually work to improve the quality of their service.