Effectiveness of social skills training for children with autism. Our industry partner, Aspect Australia, is one of the world's largest providers of educational and other services for people with autism. The demonstration of effectiveness of the program in Aspect classes will likely lead to widespread use and benefit of the program in the education sector nationally and internationally. This in turn would lead to potential lessening of disability in children with autism with improvements in thei ....Effectiveness of social skills training for children with autism. Our industry partner, Aspect Australia, is one of the world's largest providers of educational and other services for people with autism. The demonstration of effectiveness of the program in Aspect classes will likely lead to widespread use and benefit of the program in the education sector nationally and internationally. This in turn would lead to potential lessening of disability in children with autism with improvements in their mental health and significant cost savings to the community.Read moreRead less
Normative study of a checklist of emotional and behavioural disturbance in adults with intellectual disability. People with intellectual disability (ID) are three times more likely to suffer mental illness than the general community, making this a bigger problem than schizophrenia. They are a great burden to their carers and cost to the community but their mental health problems remain largely untreated. This study aims to conduct the largest and most comprehensive survey of the mental health ....Normative study of a checklist of emotional and behavioural disturbance in adults with intellectual disability. People with intellectual disability (ID) are three times more likely to suffer mental illness than the general community, making this a bigger problem than schizophrenia. They are a great burden to their carers and cost to the community but their mental health problems remain largely untreated. This study aims to conduct the largest and most comprehensive survey of the mental health of adults with ID that has been undertaken internationally to date. The population will cover the age span of late adolescence (16 years) through the transition to adult life then through to the elderly. The research will establish the prevalence and nature of mental illness and potential risk factors in a large representative population of adults with ID.Read moreRead less
Integrating community and family aged care for diverse Australians . This project aims to identify optimal ways to integrate community and family care to support older Australians from diverse cultural backgrounds to age well at home and in their communities. Using an innovative research design, the project seeks to generate new policy and practice relevant knowledge of care networks and expectations of diverse older Australians, their families and service providers to identify new avenues for e ....Integrating community and family aged care for diverse Australians . This project aims to identify optimal ways to integrate community and family care to support older Australians from diverse cultural backgrounds to age well at home and in their communities. Using an innovative research design, the project seeks to generate new policy and practice relevant knowledge of care networks and expectations of diverse older Australians, their families and service providers to identify new avenues for enabling family and community collaboration to meet care needs. Expected outcomes include enhancing Australia’s capacity to provide accessible, tailored and culturally responsive aged care, with significant benefits for improving care experiences for diverse older Australians, their families and service providers.Read moreRead less
Comparison of interventions for families from rural communities who have a child with an intellectual disability and problem behaviour. The project comprises two studies. The first aims at evaluating the relative effectiveness of two modes of supporting families from rural areas who have a child with an intellectual disability and problem behaviour. Both modes involve providing the families with written and videotape materials containing advice about how to manage the problem behaviour, but one ....Comparison of interventions for families from rural communities who have a child with an intellectual disability and problem behaviour. The project comprises two studies. The first aims at evaluating the relative effectiveness of two modes of supporting families from rural areas who have a child with an intellectual disability and problem behaviour. Both modes involve providing the families with written and videotape materials containing advice about how to manage the problem behaviour, but one mode also includes the addition of regular telephone calls. The second study focuses on examining the child, parent, practitioner, and contextual variables associated with families being able to benefit from support through the use of the written and videotape materials.Read moreRead less
Understanding and preventing workforce vulnerabilities in midlife and beyond. This project brings together frontline service agencies with researchers from two universities to study involuntary non-participation and under-participation in the labour market by midlife Australians. Quantitative and qualitative approaches will be used to understand pathways and outcomes so as to inform policy and practice responses.
The impact of outdoor youth programs on positive adolescent development: an empirical evaluation. This project will seek to ensure that the nation's outdoor resources are fully utilised for the benefit of young people. Accordingly, this project will conduct the first comprehensive randomised controlled trial of a structured outdoor youth program in order to inform more strategic investment in outdoor programs to promote positive youth development.
Pathways from Child Protection and Juvenile Justice. Almost 50% of children (10-14 year) in the Juvenile Justice (JJ) system have substantiated histories in Child Protection (CP). The vast majority of children with CP histories do not go on to offend. Other children, with no CP history, exhibit troubled behaviour and offending. The accuracy of instruments designed to identify at-risk children and adolescents will be investigated and individual and social factors that contribute to maladjustment ....Pathways from Child Protection and Juvenile Justice. Almost 50% of children (10-14 year) in the Juvenile Justice (JJ) system have substantiated histories in Child Protection (CP). The vast majority of children with CP histories do not go on to offend. Other children, with no CP history, exhibit troubled behaviour and offending. The accuracy of instruments designed to identify at-risk children and adolescents will be investigated and individual and social factors that contribute to maladjustment and offending in these populations will be identified. The identification of factors that are related to children and adolescents entering the CP and JJ systems will inform the development of targeted prevention/intervention strategies.Read moreRead less
Upholding the right to cultural connection for children in care. A positive sense of cultural identity is critical to wellbeing, yet children in out-of-home care often lose their cultural identities and connections. There is little evidence to guide out-of-home care agencies to support a culturally meaningful foster care placement for non-Indigenous culturally and linguistically diverse children. This project tests promising practices identified by the partner organisations and research literatu ....Upholding the right to cultural connection for children in care. A positive sense of cultural identity is critical to wellbeing, yet children in out-of-home care often lose their cultural identities and connections. There is little evidence to guide out-of-home care agencies to support a culturally meaningful foster care placement for non-Indigenous culturally and linguistically diverse children. This project tests promising practices identified by the partner organisations and research literature to produce an exemplary model of cultural care, with input from children, carers and birth families. Trial implementation in the partner organisations will inform guidelines and recommendations so that the model can inform policy and practice in out-of-home care across Australia.
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A new quality of life instrument with older people for economic evaluation. This project aims to develop and validate a new preference-based quality-of-life instrument with applications in aged-care. The new instrument will be developed with older people receiving aged care services, and will focus upon incorporating their values into the measurement and valuation of quality of life for economic evaluation. The new instrument will have immediate applications in quality assessment and economic ev ....A new quality of life instrument with older people for economic evaluation. This project aims to develop and validate a new preference-based quality-of-life instrument with applications in aged-care. The new instrument will be developed with older people receiving aged care services, and will focus upon incorporating their values into the measurement and valuation of quality of life for economic evaluation. The new instrument will have immediate applications in quality assessment and economic evaluation, improving the quality of life and wellbeing of older Australians, and will assist in determining the relative cost effectiveness of new and existing services.
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Post-parental housing transitions among adults with intellectual disability. This project aims to address the urgent issue of growing numbers of older people with intellectual disability (ID) outliving their parent carers who have not put future care plans in place. This project expects to generate a national evidence-based framework for ensuring successful post-parental housing and care transitions. By using a three-phase mixed methodology design in three Australian cities, expected outcomes of ....Post-parental housing transitions among adults with intellectual disability. This project aims to address the urgent issue of growing numbers of older people with intellectual disability (ID) outliving their parent carers who have not put future care plans in place. This project expects to generate a national evidence-based framework for ensuring successful post-parental housing and care transitions. By using a three-phase mixed methodology design in three Australian cities, expected outcomes of the project include the development of an Australian-first evidence-based resource kit which should provide significant benefits for older people with ID, their family carers and the disability sector, in terms of planning for post-parental housing and care transitions.Read moreRead less