Understanding heavy alcohol consumption cultures among nurses and lawyers

Dr Robyn Dwyer, Centre for Alcohol Policy Research, La Trobe University

Partner Organisation

• VicHealth
• Eastern Health
• Nursing and Midwifery Health Program Victoria
• Jarryd Bartle Consulting

Australians spend a lot of their time working and drinking collectively with work colleagues is a common practice. This means that a lot of drinking practices among different occupational groups are likely to be influenced by particular cultures of drinking. Alcohol use among workers has significant potential implications for health and wellbeing, safety and work performance. This research will generate important new knowledge on the cultural and social practices, meanings, processes and settings that encourage heavy drinking or support safer drinking among nurses and lawyers. This new knowledge can then be used for targeted and meaningful campaigns and policy initiatives for nurses and lawyers aimed at shifting risky drinking practices within the groups in order to promote safer drinking.

Gender Equality in Australia: Assessing the impact of Gender Equality in Australia on social, economic and health outcomes     

Associate Professor Allison Milner, University of Melbourne

Partners:

• VicHealth
• Australian Bureau of Statistics
• Department of Health and Human Services
• Women’s Health Victoria Inc
• PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting

Gender equality is a key focus for both government and industry. Currently, there is no agreement as to how gender equality should be either conceptualised or measured in the Australian context. This is a significant barrier to the development, implementation and evaluation of targeted gender equality programs and policies. By partnering with gender equality leaders in government and industry, this project will develop a baseline from which programs and policies can be measured. The project will also provide evidence about the effect of gender equality on social, economic and health outcomes of Australian children, women and men.

Unlocking the potential of informal sport as a health and social resource for diverse young people

Associate Professor Ruth Jeanes, Monash University

Partners:

• VicHealth
• Centre for Multicultural Youth
• Cricket Victoria
• Department of Local Government, Culture and Industries, Western Australia

Participation in sport is an important contributor to social and physical health and wellbeing. This project specifically recognises that informal sports participation has a key role to play in building healthy and resilient communities across Australia and in enhancing social connections amongst diverse communities. This project responds to an acknowledged absence of knowledge, policies and guidance that support government, sport, physical activity and health agencies to tap into the unmet potential that informal sport presents to advance health, wellbeing and participation agendas in Australia. It directs attention to what stakeholders can learn from the self-organisation of informal activities amongst diverse young people (aged 18–25) to assist agencies to develop systems that will enable them to better understand and support informal sporting opportunities, which in turn can provide young people with significant health and social benefits.

Improving the health equity of young people – The role of social enterprise

Professor Josephine Barraket, Swinburne University

This research is now complete.

VicHealth is proud to have partnered with Swinburne University to understand the role of Work Integration Social Enterprises (WISE) in addressing the social determinant of health for young people.

Overall, the research found that WISE’s can address the social determinant of health for young people.

To understand the research and the impacts on policy and practice in Australia, please see the following research documents:

• Policy guide: Improving health equity for young people: the role of social enterprise - an evidence and practice summary

• Journey to Wellbeing website

• Journey to Wellbeing interactive visual

A forum to share the research findings was held on 15 October 2020. A recording of the forum is available here.

A time-lapse of Jessamy Gee's graphic recording of the forum is available here.

Further information about this research is available from the Centre of Social Impact Swinburne.

VicHealth extends a great deal of gratitude to all researchers and participants in this research.

Investigating factors influencing the implementation of resilience and social and emotional learning programs in secondary schools

Professor Helen Cahill, University of Melbourne

Partners:

• VicHealth
• Department of Education and Training
• Charles Sturt University

This project will investigate the factors that impact the initial uptake, effective implementation and embedding of Social and Emotional Learning programs in secondary schools, by constructing a model that empirically tests the factors that influence the uptake and ongoing implementation of the recently developed Building Resilience program. Results of this implementation study will inform the use of measures, resources and support mechanisms to help schools, education systems and policy makers achieve the best possible outcomes in the implementation of resilience education programs in secondary schools.

Violence Against Women - A Media Intervention

Dr Margaret Simons, The University of Melbourne

The media plays a key role in forming societal attitudes to gender and gender roles. At the same time, ethnographic accounts of the newsroom and surveys of female journalists have established that newsrooms are sexist workplaces. Research findings suggest the majority of Australian female journalists have been sexually harassed by male colleagues, are in less senior decision-making positions, and, except for some political rounds, are largely confined to 'soft' stories. These gender issues in the newsroom appear to be reflected in news values and decisions, and are stubbornly resistant to change.

This action research project will explore and intervene at the link between gender power in news media organisations and the reporting of violence against women. In particular, it will design, implement and evaluate a pilot intervention in a newsroom to change news reporting through innovations in journalism practice enabled by new media.

The Association of Local and Regional Accessibility with Active Travel and Physical Activity: Health and Economic Impacts

Associate Professor Rebecca Bentley, The University of Melbourne

While numerous studies have measured accessibility in the home neighbourhood environment, fewer studies have measured accessibility in work and educational environments, or regional accessibility.  These are critical evidence gaps since infrastructure at both origins and destinations facilitates active and public transport travel.

This project will utilise data from two recent Victorian Department of Transport Household Travel Surveys in a multi-level study of the environmental correlates and economic benefits of walking for transport in adults and children.

Identifying cost-effective policy priorities for food security in the face of environment change

Professor Mark Lawrence, Deakin University

Changing environmental and population circumstances will have major implications on the capacity of the national food supply to meet health, social and sustainability criteria during the 21^st century and beyond. Increasingly, food security will be a social, economic, political and health policy priority for Australia. Evidence-based, cost-effective policy options are needed to reform the food system to secure a nutritionally adequate food supply for the future. This research will look to understand the impact of future environmental scenarios on future food supplies and diets, with a specific application in view – the identification of cost-effective policy options to help protect Australia’s future food security.

2011 ARC Linkage Grant Recipients

The importance of gender and socio-economic disadvantage for the health of people living with disabilities

Professor Anne Kavanagh, The University of Melbourne

Traditionally, policy development has been limited to the disability service sector which, while critical, is only one sector that is relevant to the health of people with disabilities. Policy analysts and disability advocates point to the need for a whole of government approach to ensuring the human rights of people with disabilities. This project will use existing cross-sectional and longitudinal datasets to explore how socio-economic disadvantage intersects with, and shapes, the health of people with disabilities, with a particular focus on the roles of housing and work. We will also explore how these relationships differ for men and women.  We will work collaboratively with people with a range of disabilities to: interpret the findings of the quantitative analyses of existing datasets; develop future research agendas; and identify priorities for policy and practice. This research will contribute to an evidence base for policy development across sectors, and hence offer the potential to improve the lives of people living with disabilities.

New directions in health inequalities: Understanding the intersection between housing, employment and health in Australia

Associate Professor Rebecca Bentley, The University of Melbourne

This project will explore the links between employment, housing and health for vulnerable populations and identify and unpack the pathways between precarious employment and housing and health in Australia. Understanding employment as an additional component to the relationship between housing and health will be beneficial to programs being administered through the agencies involved in this project (employment services and housing programs) and improve our theoretical understanding of the interrelationship between these key determinants of health.

2010 ARC Linkage Grant Recipients

The relocation tool kit: A guide for implementing relocation policies that enhance resident’s health and wellbeing and social inclusion

Associate Professor Kathy Arthurson, Flinders University

This research project will investigate the health and social impacts of the relocation of public housing tenants in Victoria and South Australia, made necessary through the redevelopment of inner-city public housing facilities.  The overall aim is to develop a best-practice toolkit, to assist the policy makers and practitioners involved in tenant relocation to maximise positive health and wellbeing outcomes in this disadvantaged group.

A progressive study of user and sensor models for monitoring and assisting elderly people, focusing on the visually impaired

Professor Ingrid Zukerman, Monash University

This research will develop computational systems that will help elderly people remain safely in their homes and improve their quality of life. Specifically, our systems will incorporate sensor and communication technologies to support computational models for monitoring and assisting elderly users and provide new opportunities for social interaction.

2008 ARC Linkage Grant Recipients

Environmental & Social Influences on Children's Transport

Alison Carver, Deakin University

This longitudinal research aims to understand the role of individual, social and environmental influences on changes in active transport and independent mobility among children living in disadvantaged areas of urban and rural Victoria. This project will examine changes in active transport over time as well as the contribution that these behaviours make to overall physical activity as children grow up.