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
The transition of care from ageing parents: achieving flexible relationships between adults with cerebral palsy, their siblings and service providers. The Australian community faces a significant challenge in providing life-long care for people with severe disability. We will develop a model that will assist families and service providers to make a smooth, effective transition of care and/or responsibility of adults with cerebral palsy from parents to siblings. Achieving this will increase the ....The transition of care from ageing parents: achieving flexible relationships between adults with cerebral palsy, their siblings and service providers. The Australian community faces a significant challenge in providing life-long care for people with severe disability. We will develop a model that will assist families and service providers to make a smooth, effective transition of care and/or responsibility of adults with cerebral palsy from parents to siblings. Achieving this will increase the quality of life for disabled and nondisabled family members, and ensure a more efficient use of public funding. Our findings will serve as a model for managing the life-long care of people with cerebral palsy and other severe, chronic disabilities, throughout Australia and overseas.Read moreRead less
Pharmaceutical Promotion: Productive or Problematic? Pharmaceutical promotion is an issue of importance for all Australians. Pharmaceuticals are central to maintaining the health of Australians and with factors such as an ageing population and technological advances the centrality of pharmaceuticals is likely to be consolidated. A major future challenge will be how to provide pharmaceuticals efficiently, equitably and sustainably. Problematic pharmaceutical promotion such as 'disease-mongering' ....Pharmaceutical Promotion: Productive or Problematic? Pharmaceutical promotion is an issue of importance for all Australians. Pharmaceuticals are central to maintaining the health of Australians and with factors such as an ageing population and technological advances the centrality of pharmaceuticals is likely to be consolidated. A major future challenge will be how to provide pharmaceuticals efficiently, equitably and sustainably. Problematic pharmaceutical promotion such as 'disease-mongering' potentially compromises PBS efficiency and threatens sustainability. The proposed project represents a significant empirical contribution to understanding the impact of pharmaceutical promotion on the PBS and will make a significant contribution towards making the PBS sustainableRead moreRead less
Multiple perspectives on sexuality and intimacy post-cancer, leading to the development and evaluation of supportive interventions. In 2006, over 106,000 new cases of cancer were diagnosed in Australia, impacting on the quality of life of patients and their partners. A significant proportion of couples report cessation of sexual and intimate contact post-cancer, resulting in considerable distress. To date, there has been no examination of this important health concern across a broad range of can ....Multiple perspectives on sexuality and intimacy post-cancer, leading to the development and evaluation of supportive interventions. In 2006, over 106,000 new cases of cancer were diagnosed in Australia, impacting on the quality of life of patients and their partners. A significant proportion of couples report cessation of sexual and intimate contact post-cancer, resulting in considerable distress. To date, there has been no examination of this important health concern across a broad range of cancer types, from the perspective of patients and their partners. Equally, support services rarely address sexuality issues post-cancer. This project will benefit people with cancer and their partners through examining pathways to distress, and developing programs to facilitate re-negotiation of sexuality and intimacy, post-cancer.Read moreRead less
A Model of Integrated Care for Dependant Older People Living in the Community. This research offers significant economic, health and social benefits. Promoting and maintaining good health and ageing well, ageing productively are national priority areas. Case management and telemedicine are both recognised strategies to support chronic disease self-management. Early intervention can offer significant benefits in morbidity and mortality. Enhanced service delivery using an integrated model encompas ....A Model of Integrated Care for Dependant Older People Living in the Community. This research offers significant economic, health and social benefits. Promoting and maintaining good health and ageing well, ageing productively are national priority areas. Case management and telemedicine are both recognised strategies to support chronic disease self-management. Early intervention can offer significant benefits in morbidity and mortality. Enhanced service delivery using an integrated model encompassing general practitioners, practice nurses and community carers, could improve chronic and complex disease management and reduce health costs.Read moreRead less
Meeting the needs of cancer support group leaders. Social support plays a pivotal role in the psychological adjustment of people with cancer. Support groups provide unique input, but their outcomes are reliant on the quality and sustainability of the leaders. Internationally, little is known about the challenges and unmet needs of cancer support group leaders, or how to best support them. This study will:
a) clarify the needs of cancer group leaders
b) design and evaluate two interventions (mi ....Meeting the needs of cancer support group leaders. Social support plays a pivotal role in the psychological adjustment of people with cancer. Support groups provide unique input, but their outcomes are reliant on the quality and sustainability of the leaders. Internationally, little is known about the challenges and unmet needs of cancer support group leaders, or how to best support them. This study will:
a) clarify the needs of cancer group leaders
b) design and evaluate two interventions (minimal and intense) to meet the needs of leaders.
If successful, this study will provide the evidence on which cancer organizations around the world can base interventions to sustain cancer support group leaders and thus hopefully improve psychological outcomes for cancer patients and their carers.Read moreRead less
Cultural Diversity, Community and Family Services: Experiences among Culturally and Linguistically Diverse parents of local early childhood services. The evidence is clear that strong communities and effective early intervention strategies play a key role in preventing social disadvantage later in a child's life. Through the provision of high quality training to a doctoral student, this project will have significant benefits at many levels of policy and government. Local, state and federal gover ....Cultural Diversity, Community and Family Services: Experiences among Culturally and Linguistically Diverse parents of local early childhood services. The evidence is clear that strong communities and effective early intervention strategies play a key role in preventing social disadvantage later in a child's life. Through the provision of high quality training to a doctoral student, this project will have significant benefits at many levels of policy and government. Local, state and federal governments and family service providers will have the opportunity to see the effectiveness of their services on parents over an extended period of time and to learn from the project about new strategies that may be deployed to assist culturally diverse families in their communities. Read moreRead less
Medical Signbank: sign language planning and development in interpreter-mediated medical and mental health care delivery for deaf Australians. This collaboration between academic linguists, interpreter service providers, health care providers, sign language interpreters, and the Deaf community will improve the recent initiatives to give deaf people equity in their access to health care services. For the first time, deaf people are able to access medical services early and effectively, improving ....Medical Signbank: sign language planning and development in interpreter-mediated medical and mental health care delivery for deaf Australians. This collaboration between academic linguists, interpreter service providers, health care providers, sign language interpreters, and the Deaf community will improve the recent initiatives to give deaf people equity in their access to health care services. For the first time, deaf people are able to access medical services early and effectively, improving treatment outcomes and, importantly, preventing conditions occurring in the first place or allowing early intervention before they become much more serious and costly to the individual and the community. This project will therefore be of national benefit, as all stakeholders from all over Australia will be able to access the Medical Signbank resource.Read moreRead less