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ItemNo Preview AvailableSelf-managed Home Aged Care Support Research Report(University of Melbourne, 2024)The study investigated the benefits and risks to: i) older people who self-manage their home care package; ii) their support workers; and iii) ways to mitigate these risks. The findings highlighted how older people can successfully self-manage their aged Home Care Package and how risks can be managed. While self-management is not wanted by everyone, those who chose to self-manage reported benefits. These included having more choice and control over their support, especially being able to select support workers. Interviewees felt much safer selecting support workers who matched their needs and interests compared to having unknown rostered agency staff come to their home. Contracted support workers often worked for one consumer for years. Modern technology was an asset that facilitated self-management. Technology assisted with recruiting support workers, scheduling work, managing accounts and payments, and enabling providers to monitor spending and be alerted to any unusual payments or fraud. Self-management occurred within a complex service system where there was inadequate funding for community services and Home Care Packages as well as workforce shortages. These challenges impacted on older people in the study who self-managed and their family representatives. While workforce shortages were a major concern across the sector, most interviewees used informal networks and online recruitment services to find satisfactory workers. However, recruitment was a challenge for some interviewees from time to time. Self-management required consumers and their family representatives to navigate complex family dynamics and manage support workers and other services. Some consumers had the confidence and skills to competently manage these situations after a lifetime of relevant experiences. Others were beginning to develop skills and sometimes felt challenged. Everyone needed access to information and advice from time to time, particularly those developing new skills. Interviewees discussed the need to balance consumer’s protection and care with their right to ‘dignity of risk’, to build their capacity, and to choose their lifestyle. Multiple risks were identified with all aged care services, including self-management. Older people can be vulnerable to perpetrators of abuse from within and outside their families. Their rights can also be overridden subtly by others with well-meaning intent. These include service providers who want to minimise risks, surveillance and tracking technologies that are not transparent, and by families wanting to protect. Strategies to mitigate risks need to be individually tailored, with diverse and individual safeguarding strategies developed. Restrictive strategies should only be imposed when proven necessary and expressly stated with necessary consents provided, if necessary, through appropriate Guardianship mechanisms.
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ItemNo Preview AvailableMeaning Making in Early Childhood Research Pedagogies and the Personal(Routledge, 2017-12-12)This collection explores how educators and researchers can move toward practices of meaning making in early childhood education.
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ItemI know what you did last summer: a cross-sectional study of personal COVID-19 risk reduction strategies used by Victorian adults, December 2021-January 2022.(Elsevier BV, 2023-06)OBJECTIVE: We describe COVID-19 risk reduction strategies adopted by Victorian adults during December 2021-January 2022, a period of high COVID-19 infection and limited government mandated public health measures. METHODS: In February 2022, participants of a Victorian-based cohort study (Optimise) completed a cross-sectional survey on risk reduction behaviours during December 2021-January 2022. Regression modelling estimated the association between risk reduction and demographics. RESULTS: A total of 556 participants were included (median age 47 years; 75% women; 82% in metropolitan Melbourne). Two-thirds (61%) adopted at least one risk reduction behaviour, with uptake highest among younger participants (18-34 years; adjusted relative risk (aRR): 1.20, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.01, 1.41) and those with a chronic health condition (aRR: 1.17, 95% CI: 1.02, 1.35). CONCLUSIONS: Participants adopted their own COVID-19 risk reduction strategies in a setting of limited government restrictions, with young people more likely to adopt a risk reduction strategy that did not limit social mobility. IMPLICATION FOR PUBLIC HEALTH: A public health response to COVID-19 that focusses on promoting personal risk reduction behaviours, as opposed to mandated restrictions, could be enhanced by disseminating information on and increasing availability of effective risk reduction strategies tailored to segments of the population.
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ItemPriority populations' experiences of isolation, quarantine and distancing for COVID-19: protocol for a longitudinal cohort study (Optimise Study)(BMJ PUBLISHING GROUP, 2024-01)INTRODUCTION: Longitudinal studies can provide timely and accurate information to evaluate and inform COVID-19 control and mitigation strategies and future pandemic preparedness. The Optimise Study is a multidisciplinary research platform established in the Australian state of Victoria in September 2020 to collect epidemiological, social, psychological and behavioural data from priority populations. It aims to understand changing public attitudes, behaviours and experiences of COVID-19 and inform epidemic modelling and support responsive government policy. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: This protocol paper describes the data collection procedures for the Optimise Study, an ongoing longitudinal cohort of ~1000 Victorian adults and their social networks. Participants are recruited using snowball sampling with a set of seeds and two waves of snowball recruitment. Seeds are purposively selected from priority groups, including recent COVID-19 cases and close contacts and people at heightened risk of infection and/or adverse outcomes of COVID-19 infection and/or public health measures. Participants complete a schedule of monthly quantitative surveys and daily diaries for up to 24 months, plus additional surveys annually for up to 48 months. Cohort participants are recruited for qualitative interviews at key time points to enable in-depth exploration of people's lived experiences. Separately, community representatives are invited to participate in community engagement groups, which review and interpret research findings to inform policy and practice recommendations. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: The Optimise longitudinal cohort and qualitative interviews are approved by the Alfred Hospital Human Research Ethics Committee (# 333/20). The Optimise Study CEG is approved by the La Trobe University Human Ethics Committee (# HEC20532). All participants provide informed verbal consent to enter the cohort, with additional consent provided prior to any of the sub studies. Study findings will be disseminated through public website (https://optimisecovid.com.au/study-findings/) and through peer-reviewed publications. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: NCT05323799.
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ItemNo Preview AvailableGrowing up in Victoria, Australia, in the midst of the climate emergency(SAGE PUBLICATIONS LTD, 2024-03)Children and young people (henceforth referred to as young people) are one of the groups most affected by climate change and are at the forefront of climate action. Yet, there is scarce evidence on how young people navigate the challenges presented by climate change using their personal strengths and the resources accessible to them. This study aimed to address this gap by drawing on qualitative data from workshops with 31 young people between 12 and 22 years of age from metropolitan Melbourne and a bushfire-risk region in Victoria, Australia. An inductive thematic analysis of workshop transcripts showed that participants had progressively become aware of climate change in an increasingly uncertain world and sought to gain a sense of connection, agency, and hope. Participants aimed to achieve the latter by becoming aware of opportunities for climate actions in everyday life and developing themselves as agents of change. We discussed our findings from a developmental perspective to gain a better understanding of how supporting young people in learning about and acting on climate change can benefit their mental health and sense of agency.
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ItemTrajectory of adjustment difficulties following disaster: 10-year longitudinal cohort study(CAMBRIDGE UNIV PRESS, 2024-03-04)BACKGROUND: Although much is known about psychopathology such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression following bushfire (also known as wildfire), little is known about prevalence, trajectory and impacts for those experiencing general adjustment difficulties following exposure to these now-common events. AIMS: This was an exploratory analysis of a large cohort study that examined the prevalence, trajectory and risk factors of probable adjustment disorder over a 10-year period following bushfire exposure. METHOD: The Beyond Bushfires study assessed individuals exposed to a large and deadly bushfire across three time points spanning 10 years. Self-report survey data from participants from areas with moderate and high levels of fire-affectedness were analysed: n = 802 participants at Wave 1 (3-4 years post-fires), n = 596 at Wave 2 (5 years post-fires) and n = 436 at Wave 3 (10 years post-fires). Surveys indexed fire-related experiences and post-fire stressors, and comprised the six-item Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (probable adjustment disorder index), four-item Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Checklist (probable fire-related PTSD) and nine-item Patient Health Questionnaire (probable major depressive episode). RESULTS: Prevalence of probable adjustment disorder was 16% (Wave 1), 15% (Wave 2) and 19% (Wave 3). Probable adjustment disorder at 3-4 years post-fires predicted a five-fold increase in risk for escalating to severe psychiatric disorder (i.e. probable fire-related PTSD/major depressive episode) at 10 years post-fires, and was associated with post-fire income and relationship stressors. CONCLUSIONS: Adjustment difficulties are prevalent post-disaster, many of which are maintained and exacerbated over time, resulting in increased risk for later disorder and adaptation difficulties. Psychosocial interventions supporting survivors with adjustment difficulties may prevent progression to more severe disorder.
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ItemApathy: Disaffection, Enthusiasm, Fanaticism(C. Hurst and Co., 2023)Charity, community, duty, and struggle are good – not only sanctified and rewarding but also good in themselves. And yet the evidence is that society at large is losing and devaluing commitment to others: we live in times diagnosed as consisting of social pathologies and a-pathologies – where, curiously, apathy is taken as a variant of, rather than existing in opposition to, pathology. Fascinated, for obvious reasons, with their diminishing share of trust, older print and broadcast news media have exhaustively analysed the rise of social media bubbles and echo chambers, trolls, and splenetic outbursts, discovering that the profitability of these emergent media forums depends on the speed and energy of their communications, and that unsurprisingly, anger sells. Aggrieved fury would appear to be a dominant emotional state of our times. More reflective commentators, including William Davies in the UK and Joseph Vogl in Germany – both acknowledging the same condition where ‘knowledge becomes more valued for its speed and impact than for its cold objectivity, and emotive falsehood often travels faster than fact’ – observe that it can generate an emotional state in which ‘otherwise peaceful situations can come to feel dangerous, until eventually they really are’.
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ItemCult of the Archaic: The Swindle of Fascist Fulfilment(Australian Review of Books, 2024-03-01)Review of ‘Late Fascism: Race, capitalism and the politics of crisis’ by Alberto Toscano