Psychosocial and mental health policy in countries emerging from conflict and natural disaster: analysis of policy and program responses. International donor involvement in psychosocial and mental health policy and programming in complex emergencies has been plagued with controversy. With this project, Australian researchers will help build a much needed evidence base for psychosocial and mental health policy formulation and implementation. It will specifically enhance programming responses in ....Psychosocial and mental health policy in countries emerging from conflict and natural disaster: analysis of policy and program responses. International donor involvement in psychosocial and mental health policy and programming in complex emergencies has been plagued with controversy. With this project, Australian researchers will help build a much needed evidence base for psychosocial and mental health policy formulation and implementation. It will specifically enhance programming responses in conflict- and disaster-affected countries of the Asia-Pacific region, where Australia is devoting considerable resources and attention. Better insights into policy processes and the transferability of experience will maximise Australia's response and operational effectiveness, and will have immediate relevance in Tsunami affected areas.Read moreRead less
Improving Government Policy Making and Needs-Based Delivery of Services: Innovative Techniques to Enhance Administrative Data by Adding Socioeconomic Status. This project will create major national benefits by illuminating whether there are significant differences in access to or usage of such key government services as health and education by socio-economic status. Currently, most departments do not fully exploit their administrative data to answer such questions, because of the difficulty of ....Improving Government Policy Making and Needs-Based Delivery of Services: Innovative Techniques to Enhance Administrative Data by Adding Socioeconomic Status. This project will create major national benefits by illuminating whether there are significant differences in access to or usage of such key government services as health and education by socio-economic status. Currently, most departments do not fully exploit their administrative data to answer such questions, because of the difficulty of identifying the socio-economic status of users. This project will help Australia in its on-going but recently intensified efforts to make better use of its administrative data, resulting in a more efficient use of our data resources; better targeting of scare government resources; and improved identification of those in greatest need. Read moreRead less
Changing children’s chances: Exploring pathways to developmental inequities. This project aims to investigate the causes of health and developmental inequities between Australian children. Inequities are increasingly observed in Australian children’s physical health, social and emotional wellbeing, and academic learning. Such inequities are unjust, unnecessary and potentially preventable. This project aims to understand the pathways leading to these inequities by examining the many contexts in w ....Changing children’s chances: Exploring pathways to developmental inequities. This project aims to investigate the causes of health and developmental inequities between Australian children. Inequities are increasingly observed in Australian children’s physical health, social and emotional wellbeing, and academic learning. Such inequities are unjust, unnecessary and potentially preventable. This project aims to understand the pathways leading to these inequities by examining the many contexts in which children and their families live and grow. Through a series of innovative analyses using existing data, the project aims to identify potentially modifiable factors at the child, family, school, and community level that contribute to developmental inequities. Understanding of the most promising leverage points for interventions to reduce inequities for Australian children could be used to inform policy.Read moreRead less
Job quality and care quality in aged care. The project aims to investigate how job quality and the quality of care are linked in residential and community-based aged care services. Population ageing and fewer informal carers place pressure on aged care provision across the OECD There is little understanding, at either the policy or workplace levels, of how the quality of aged care jobs affects the viability and quality of that provision. The project expects to improve knowledge about how job qua ....Job quality and care quality in aged care. The project aims to investigate how job quality and the quality of care are linked in residential and community-based aged care services. Population ageing and fewer informal carers place pressure on aged care provision across the OECD There is little understanding, at either the policy or workplace levels, of how the quality of aged care jobs affects the viability and quality of that provision. The project expects to improve knowledge about how job quality affects aged care quality; and identify care markets, policy regimes and work organisation that best support sustainable quality aged care.Read moreRead less
Opportunity and Disadvantage: Differences in Wellbeing Among Australia's Adults and Children at a Small Area Level. There is growing interest in regional perspectives in social, economic and health policy, amid increasing evidence that the opportunities and well-being of Australians are greatly affected by where they live. But the evidence base and data required to assess distributional equity issues are deficient. This project will improve the welfare of Australians by generating new insights i ....Opportunity and Disadvantage: Differences in Wellbeing Among Australia's Adults and Children at a Small Area Level. There is growing interest in regional perspectives in social, economic and health policy, amid increasing evidence that the opportunities and well-being of Australians are greatly affected by where they live. But the evidence base and data required to assess distributional equity issues are deficient. This project will improve the welfare of Australians by generating new insights into spatial inequalities; creating new databases about the characteristics of Australians living in each small area; making these new data very widely available through the web; and placing Australia at the international leading edge in the production of spatial socio-economic household data.Read moreRead less
Trade policy: maximising benefits for nutrition, food security, human health, and the economy. Depending on how it is done, trade can be good or bad for peoples' health and social well-being. This study will provide evidence to support the development of trade policy which combines economic as well as social and health goals. This will help improve global food security and human health, reduce poverty and support good international relations.
Policy orientation of non-health sectors to social determinants of health. This project aims to advance understanding of how Australian government policies in four sectors (justice, environment, planning, and industry) are oriented to action on social determinants of health equity (SDHE), including Indigenous health. Evidence shows that government policy in all sectors affects health. The World Health Organization and the United Nations have called for whole-of-government approaches to SDHE. The ....Policy orientation of non-health sectors to social determinants of health. This project aims to advance understanding of how Australian government policies in four sectors (justice, environment, planning, and industry) are oriented to action on social determinants of health equity (SDHE), including Indigenous health. Evidence shows that government policy in all sectors affects health. The World Health Organization and the United Nations have called for whole-of-government approaches to SDHE. The project plans to apply theory to understand how policy values and strategies in the selected sectors provide for or present barriers to this approach. Expected project outcomes will produce evidence for policy-makers on how to strengthen policy coherence across sectors to address SDHE more effectively in order to promote Australian health and reduce health inequities.Read moreRead less