A Public Health Framework of Effectiveness: Evaluating the Framework for Telephone Counselling. The demand for telephone counselling is strong and while this form of counselling has face validity, there is no substantive research into its effectiveness for clients. This project aims to adapt the public health model to evaluate processes and outcomes of Lifeline - a generic telephone counselling service in Melbourne. The public health model of effectiveness, will, in turn, also be evaluated.
Time scarcity in Australian families: another inequity? The globalising economy, financial uncertainties and major democratic changes are all affecting family time. Parent's time is a resource on which children depend, but time scarcity has become a widespread problem for families. Our study helps focus policy attention on this problem. We deliver new methods to assess the experience of time scarcity in families, identifying those who are most likely to experience it, where they live, and how ti ....Time scarcity in Australian families: another inequity? The globalising economy, financial uncertainties and major democratic changes are all affecting family time. Parent's time is a resource on which children depend, but time scarcity has become a widespread problem for families. Our study helps focus policy attention on this problem. We deliver new methods to assess the experience of time scarcity in families, identifying those who are most likely to experience it, where they live, and how time scarcity affects them. This evidence can help support policy approaches to time, benefiting the twin economic and social policy goals of encouraging workforce participation while supporting the health and wellbeing of families.Read moreRead less
Recognising, assessing, and managing high risk stalking behaviour: An evidence-based approach. Developing effective methods of assessing and treating stalkers will directly impact the health and safety of thousands of stalking victims across Australia, and reduce the number of stalkers coming into contact with the criminal justice system. Application of the assessment and treatment tools developed during this project by mental health and corrective services around Australia will help to reduce p ....Recognising, assessing, and managing high risk stalking behaviour: An evidence-based approach. Developing effective methods of assessing and treating stalkers will directly impact the health and safety of thousands of stalking victims across Australia, and reduce the number of stalkers coming into contact with the criminal justice system. Application of the assessment and treatment tools developed during this project by mental health and corrective services around Australia will help to reduce physical and psychological harm experienced by both stalkers and their victims. The development and implementation of practical and effective strategies that lessen the impact of stalking will reduce the burden of mental ill-health caused by stalking, increase community safety, and reduce overall levels of victimisation in Australian society. Read moreRead less
A history of psychiatric institutionalisation and community care in Australia, 1830s-1990s. A vigorous debate is underway in Australia currently over the policy of closing mental institutions and caring for the mentally ill in the community. Whereas doctors, politicians and journalists have contributed to this debate, regularly resorting to history to bolster their arguments, historians themselves have had relatively little to say. A genuinely national history of mental health care simply does n ....A history of psychiatric institutionalisation and community care in Australia, 1830s-1990s. A vigorous debate is underway in Australia currently over the policy of closing mental institutions and caring for the mentally ill in the community. Whereas doctors, politicians and journalists have contributed to this debate, regularly resorting to history to bolster their arguments, historians themselves have had relatively little to say. A genuinely national history of mental health care simply does not exist. This study provides that comprehensive history, in the belief that policy making in such a vital area of health cannot be undertaken effectively without an informed understanding of the successes and failures of the last 150 years.Read moreRead less
Living high but healthy: impacts of access to nature on health, wellbeing and effective functioning of inner city highrise residents. Impacts on the health, wellbeing and effective functioning of inner city highrise residents, resulting from differing levels of access to natural environments, will be studied. Stratified random sampling will be used to select a sample of 600 residents in Melbourne and Sydney, including highrise apartment owner-occupiers and tenants of highrise public housing dev ....Living high but healthy: impacts of access to nature on health, wellbeing and effective functioning of inner city highrise residents. Impacts on the health, wellbeing and effective functioning of inner city highrise residents, resulting from differing levels of access to natural environments, will be studied. Stratified random sampling will be used to select a sample of 600 residents in Melbourne and Sydney, including highrise apartment owner-occupiers and tenants of highrise public housing developments. Both groups will include people with differing levels of access to green spaces. Questionnaires based on validated psychometric scales, and qualitative semi-structured interviews will be used to collect data, which will be analysed to assess the impacts of access to nature on health, wellbeing and effective functioning.Read moreRead less
Reading the Objects: Developing Online Personal Stories from Australia's 'Museums of Madness', 1870-1980. Museum Victoria's Psychiatric Services Collection contains over 1,600 objects from mental hospitals that operated in the state between 1870 and 1980. It is one of the largest collections of its type in the world. As the relative merits of psychiatric institutionalization and community care remain controversial, making digitized images of all these objects available online, accompanied by exp ....Reading the Objects: Developing Online Personal Stories from Australia's 'Museums of Madness', 1870-1980. Museum Victoria's Psychiatric Services Collection contains over 1,600 objects from mental hospitals that operated in the state between 1870 and 1980. It is one of the largest collections of its type in the world. As the relative merits of psychiatric institutionalization and community care remain controversial, making digitized images of all these objects available online, accompanied by expert historical commentaries, will not only throw light on the daily lives of patients and staff and the care offered in institutions now largely vanished, but it will also help promote a better informed public debate about this vital area of mental health policy.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
Strengthening the capacity of public health organisations to deliver effective public health services. In an effort to maintain and improve the health of the population Australia has defined the core public health functions that must be carried out. This project will examine public health infrastructure and capacity in three states - mapping the implementation of core functions, assessing current infrastructure, comparing organisational approaches, and developing measures of local public health ....Strengthening the capacity of public health organisations to deliver effective public health services. In an effort to maintain and improve the health of the population Australia has defined the core public health functions that must be carried out. This project will examine public health infrastructure and capacity in three states - mapping the implementation of core functions, assessing current infrastructure, comparing organisational approaches, and developing measures of local public health capacity. These will then become industry benchmarks to guide investment and interventions, and to assess the quality of these. The project will investigate the context in which core public health functions are successfully delivered and develop tools to measure local capacity and delivery functions.Read moreRead less
Moral Hazard and the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. The extent and significance of moral hazard in the PBS is an issue of significance for all Australians. Pharmaceuticals are a central feature in 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 One, if not the, major challenge will be how to provide pharmaceuticals efficiently, equitably and sustainably. If significant a ....Moral Hazard and the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. The extent and significance of moral hazard in the PBS is an issue of significance for all Australians. Pharmaceuticals are a central feature in 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 One, if not the, major challenge will be how to provide pharmaceuticals efficiently, equitably and sustainably. If significant and extensive, moral hazard potentially compromises PBS efficiency and threatens sustainability. The proposed project represents a significant empirical contribution to understanding the impact of moral hazard on the PBS and will make a significant contribution towards making the PBS sustainableRead moreRead less
Effective clinical handover communication: improving patient safety, experience and outcomes. Improving written and spoken communication in clinical handover will significantly reduce critical incidents in hospitals. The link between communication and critical incidents in hospitals is well documented. One third of the $2 billion p.a. direct financial costs to Australia of critical incidents, is attributed to poor communication between clinicians. National and international governments and heal ....Effective clinical handover communication: improving patient safety, experience and outcomes. Improving written and spoken communication in clinical handover will significantly reduce critical incidents in hospitals. The link between communication and critical incidents in hospitals is well documented. One third of the $2 billion p.a. direct financial costs to Australia of critical incidents, is attributed to poor communication between clinicians. National and international governments and health agencies have targeted clinical handover as critical in safe, effective health care. This project will generate new knowledge of handover to significantly improve patient safety and enable health professionals to enhance their communicative practices, thereby improving the quality of the patient journey through the hospital system.Read moreRead less