PHCRED - FACULTY OF HEALTH SCIENCE & MEDICINE
BOND UNIVERSITY
Maree Anne Crepinsek
Masters of Science by Research student
Ph: 07 5595 4494
E: mcrepins@bond.edu.au
The past 25 plus years has kept me busy as a Registered Nurse, Midwife and Lactation Consultant in private practice. I have a strong clinical back ground, but have had an interest in research for most of my professional life.
In 2002 I worked as a project manager/ Lactation Consultant at the Centre for Rural and Remote Area Health, University of Southern Queensland. This project was the second stage of the National Child Nutrition Research Project, (a Commonwealth Government funded research project). In this project we piloted a telephone support service for postnatal mothers. In 2004 I was appointed Project manager for a project entitled Against all odds: A retrospective study of women who succeed at breastfeeding despite extraordinary difficulties . This project was a Florence Chatfield Research Grant through the Queensland Nursing Council.
In 2006 I completed a research fellowship at Bond University through PHCRED where I conducted a study titled: “Timing of Breastfeeding Decision Affects Feeding Duration”. This study examined whether the timing of the infant feeding decision influences breastfeeding exclusivity and duration. Analysis showed that older women were more likely to have private health cover and also have partners. This group of participants were also more likely to exclusively breastfeed for longer. This data suggests that the earlier the decision to breastfeed may lead to longer breastfeeding exclusivity.
This experience has lead me to my Masters of Science by Research at Bond University with view to completing a PhD. I am currently starting a Cochrane systematic review entitled Treatments for preventing mastitis after childbirth. As a consequence of my journey, my quest for knowledge and my understanding of the research process has greatly been enhanced, as a result I believe I will have the opportunity to give back to my profession.
PHCRED - FACULTY OF HEALTH SCIENCES & MEDICINE
BOND UNIVERSITY
Sallie Gardner
PHCRED Fellow
Ph: 0407 590 703
E: sgardner@bond.edu.au
Depression is a serious mental health problem for the community requiring appropriate diagnosis and treatment. Medical practitioners and mental health providers treat patients with various interventions, through face-to-face therapy, with significant evidence to support cognitive behaviour therapy as an effective treatment for mild to moderate depression.
Not all depressed persons access face-to-face practitioner-directed interventions because of geographical location or time constraints. Hence popularity of computer assisted self-help programs is increasing, with people using message board, chat rooms, email and specific web-based resources for seeking help with depression. The internet opens up access to therapy by VOIP or SKYPE for tele-psychiatry, and specific web sites now generate psychiatric diagnoses, confirming the criteria from DSM-IV. Thus families are able to sit together and access information of relevance in supporting a person who is depressed.
My interest in the combination of technology, self-help materials, and treatments for depression has led to an exploration, through the PHCRED Fellowship, of Computer assisted self-help materials for the treatment of depression . This work, which is the basis for PhD study, is being prepared as a Cochrane Review, with the support of Bond University's PHCRED unit housed within the Faculty of Health Sciences and Medicine and Dr Chris Wever, A/Prof of Psychiatry at Bond University.
The work aims to explore the use of computer assisted self-help materials for depressed General Practitioners.
RURAL HEALTH RESEARCH UNIT, SCHOOL OF MEDICINE
JAMES COOK UNIVERSITY
Ross Blackman
Research Assistant / RDP Fellow
Ph: 07 4796 3382
E: ross.blackman@jcu.edu.au
In the narratives of patients injured in vehicle crashes, sometimes actual events seem stranger than fiction. Potential action movie scenes abound in the accounts of patients interviewed by the Rural and Remote Road Safety Study (RRRSS), a collaborative project conducted by Queensland University of Technology's Centre for Accident Research and Road Safety and James Cook University's Rural Health Research Unit. Unfortunately of course, tragedy overwhelms any entertainment value as the reader becomes ever more familiar with two key points; first, that the vast majority of crashes are attributable to driver error and, second, that limiting behaviour which leads to such error must remain a primary goal of road safety strategists.
Actions described in ‘crash narratives' range from the seemingly innocuous, such as adjusting car stereos, to the plainly ridiculous, exemplified by the following: “(The) driver and myself had been drinking doing ‘fishies' and stuff up the driveway…ended up colliding with a tree. The whole front end was totalled”. While the quotation represents an extreme case of high risk behaviour in which only a small minority of drivers ever engage, the range of themes identified in narratives demonstrates that all road users are always potentially ‘at risk'.
I was fortunate to be able to discuss these narratives and related material with other researchers at the PHCRED Fellows meeting in October last year. While working on the RRRSS as a PHCRED RDP Fellow has allowed me to acquire an intimate knowledge of road safety issues in North Queensland, just as importantly I have benefited from opportunities to refine analytical, writing, communication and presentation skills. Exposure to a diverse range of other research fields and methods under the broad umbrella of Primary Health Care has also been invaluable in terms of my professional development.
DISCIPLINE OF GENERAL PRACTICE
 UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY
Dr Rachelle Rubinstein
PHCRED Coordinator
Ph: 02 9556 7200
E: raechelle@gp.med.usyd.edu.au
The University of Sydney's 2006 RCBI program featured a number of key achievements.
First, our three Researcher Development Program fellows completed their placements. Carol Kefford, in the area of youth health, completed the first stage of a project to evaluate the benefits of exercise for adolescents suffering from chronic health conditions. Meredith Makeham and Simone Stromer researched different aspects of medical errors and medical error reporting among GPs and Academic Registrars. Together, they developed a system for coding medical errors.
A second highlight of our program was the achievements of the Youth Health Research Interest Group (YHRIG) research network. The network, which began under the PHCRED Strategy Phase I, boasts around twelve members throughout Australia. They meet on a bi-monthly basis via teleconference to provide mentoring to each other and to plan joint research-related activities. They hosted a breakfast session at the 2006 GP & PHC Research Conference, and seven of the group's members gave presentations at the Youth Health 2006 Conference, including the keynote address.
A third achievement was the research training that we provided to a range of primary health care professionals. We also hosted a range of monthly research seminar presentations by in-house and overseas speakers. We were privileged that a number of outstanding international visitors offered their expertise in one-on-one sessions not only to our own students but also to visiting research students from other universities.
A fourth achievement was the success of our efforts to increase the uptake of research in policy and practice. Our three RDP fellows gave eight conference presentations; Meredith Makeham published a paper about medical errors in MJA to which Simone Stromer contributed; and a few Divisions of General Practice and groups of Academic Registrars received training in aspects of youth health, including how to communicate effectively with adolescents.
DEPARTMENT OF GENERAL PRACTICE
THE UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE
Hayley Shaw
Research Development Coordinator
Ph: 03 8344 9050
E: h.shaw@unimelb.edu.au
We are pleased to announce a new member to our PHCRED team, Dr Meredith Temple-Smith. Meredith commenced her position as Senior Lecturer in Primary Care Research in February 2007 and will be responsible for the coordination of the PHCRED program including research training within the Department of General Practice.
Meredith has worked in the area of health services research for over 20 years, having commenced her public health career in this Department as a research assistant. Twenty years later she has returned to us, now with an MPH, a doctorate, and a great deal of research experience conducted at Deakin and LaTrobe Universities. Meredith's major research interest is in the area of sexually transmissible infections, particularly in relation to general practice. She recently co-edited the book Sexual Health: an Australian Perspective ( Temple-Smith, M., and Gifford, S., 2005, IP Communications ). In the last few years she has been involved in research on hepatitis C, such as examining referral routes for treatment. She is currently co-editing a book on hepatitis C, due for release in 2008.
We also welcome four new Research Development Program (RDP) fellows to the Department. The fellows and their topics are listed below.
- Dr Claudio Villella- Do they get there? What happens to young people with drug and alcohol and or mental health issues when they leave detention in Melbourne?
- Dr Hubert van Doorn- How do General Practitioners manage depression, in conjunction with referrals to secondary mental health care providers?
- Ms Susan Webster- General Practice health assessment of children and young people in out-of-home care
- Mr Michael Janssen- Increasing the utilisation in indigenous health service of medicare items for chronic disease management and preventative health care.
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