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
Welfare receipt, demoralisation and mental health: how can welfare reform promote personal wellbeing and social inclusion? Welfare recipients are more likely to experience mental disorders and have poor wellbeing than non-recipients, and this can be a barrier to employment. This project examines the factors that may improve their mental health, promote employment outcomes, and help the Commonwealth Government develop effective welfare reform policies.
The importance of gender and socio-economic disadvantage for the mental health of people living with disabilities. The twenty per cent of Australians reporting a disability are more likely to live in disadvantaged circumstances such as inadequate housing, unemployment, and lower levels of education all of which may contribute to poor mental health. Yet there has not been research on the mental health of people with disabilities. This means that disability services and advocacy groups, which deal ....The importance of gender and socio-economic disadvantage for the mental health of people living with disabilities. The twenty per cent of Australians reporting a disability are more likely to live in disadvantaged circumstances such as inadequate housing, unemployment, and lower levels of education all of which may contribute to poor mental health. Yet there has not been research on the mental health of people with disabilities. This means that disability services and advocacy groups, which deal daily with the lived experiences of disadvantage and poor mental health in people with disabilities, do not have evidence to support policy and service sector reform. This project will provide this critical evidence as well as build research capacity in disability-related research and lead to better monitoring of disability-related health inequities.Read moreRead less
Discriminatory acts and young adults with disabilities in public places. Young Australians with disabilities face pervasive disadvantages and institutional discrimination in many areas of life excluding them from social and economic participation. This project builds on this knowledge to investigate the inter-personal discrimination young people with disabilities experience in public and the impact of this discrimination on their social, economic, cultural and emotional lives. The potential outc ....Discriminatory acts and young adults with disabilities in public places. Young Australians with disabilities face pervasive disadvantages and institutional discrimination in many areas of life excluding them from social and economic participation. This project builds on this knowledge to investigate the inter-personal discrimination young people with disabilities experience in public and the impact of this discrimination on their social, economic, cultural and emotional lives. The potential outcome of this project will be a better understanding of the range and impact of actions and behaviours that young people with disabilities experience as discriminatory, violent or unsafe in public in Australia today.Read moreRead less
Interaction Mining for Cyberbullying Detection on Social Networks. This project plans to build an interactive mining system to detect cyberbullying on social networks that have a large number of participants and a variety of inputs, including conversation texts, time-variant changes and user profiles. The project is designed to change the existing cyberbullying prevention services from reactive keyword filtering to proactive social interaction pattern mining. The intended outcome will enable the ....Interaction Mining for Cyberbullying Detection on Social Networks. This project plans to build an interactive mining system to detect cyberbullying on social networks that have a large number of participants and a variety of inputs, including conversation texts, time-variant changes and user profiles. The project is designed to change the existing cyberbullying prevention services from reactive keyword filtering to proactive social interaction pattern mining. The intended outcome will enable the early detection and warning of cyberbullying and approach open a new way to discover interaction patterns with a large number of participants over evolving and complex social networks.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
New directions in health inequalities research: understanding the intersection between housing, employment and health in Australia. People employed on a casual basis in Australia are nearly three times more likely to live in a household that is in housing affordability stress than their permanently employed counterparts. Employment and housing are both determinants of health. While social inclusion, employment and housing affordability are critical components of the government's current social p ....New directions in health inequalities research: understanding the intersection between housing, employment and health in Australia. People employed on a casual basis in Australia are nearly three times more likely to live in a household that is in housing affordability stress than their permanently employed counterparts. Employment and housing are both determinants of health. While social inclusion, employment and housing affordability are critical components of the government's current social policy agenda, articulation between these policy domains is limited and little researched. This important study will provide robust evidence on the ways that housing and employment interact to both cause and prevent health inequities. This will directly benefit agencies delivering services to vulnerable people and contribute to an evidence base of benefit to policy makers.Read moreRead less
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