School of Population Health

Our Projects

 

Aboriginal Child and Adolescent Health

image - Adolescent Health

Centre for Research Excellence in Aboriginal Child and Adolescent Health (CRE REACH), funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), is a five-year work program led by Professor Sandra Eades to improve Aboriginal child and adolescent health through Aboriginal leadership and collaborative research teams. Bringing together a diverse group of leading public health researchers, the four priority themes for CRE REACH include tackling early childhood developmental delay, smoking, over/under nutrition, and injury. Program Details.  Prof Rebecca Ivers is one of the Chief Investigators, working on several research streams including:

  • Next Generation Youth Wellbeing Study - Understanding health trajectories in Aboriginal adolescents and youth 10-24.
  • Injury/Burns and Prevention - Understanding burn injury in and effectiveness of interventions for preventing burns and minimising severity of burn injuries in Aboriginal children.
  • Adolescent Driver Licensing Support - Improving employment and education outcomes for adolescents through driver licensing support programs.

 

Ironbark trial: healthy ageing for older Aboriginal people

image - Ironbark Trial

The Ironbark trial is a cluster randomised control trial comparing the health outcomes of the Ironbark: Standing Strong & Tall program (a weekly exercise and yarning circle) to the Ironbark: Healthy Community program (a weekly social program) among groups of Aboriginal people aged 45 years and older.
 
The research includes funding local Aboriginal services to deliver one of the programs for 10 – 15 Aboriginal people for 12 months.  We aim to recruit 60 services and around 600 participants (both men and women) into the trial over the next 4 years.  We are working with collaborators in NSW, SA and WA.

There is a nested evaluation to determine acceptability of the Ironbark: Standing Strong and Tall program to participants, and an economic analysis.  We envisage the research will have direct policy and program benefits for Aboriginal specific falls prevention programs, and wellbeing programs for older Aboriginal people.

See Project Details