Prevention Works

The Australian Prevention Partnership Centre discuss our first decade in chronic disease prevention research.

Join host ⁠⁠Gretchen Miller⁠⁠ as she chats with co-directors Professor Lucie Rychetnik and Professor Andrew Wilson and policy advisor Adjunct Associate Professor Jo Mitchell about the evolution of the ideas driving the Prevention Centre, including systems thinking, co-design, integrating knowledge synthesis with policy dialogues, our collaboration for enhanced research impact, supporting early career researchers, and how strategic communication is a critical part of the process.

Join host ⁠Gretchen Miller⁠ as she chats with guests:

• Professor Helena Teede AO, Director of the Monash Centre for Health Research Implementation. Helena discusses the need to address structural and systems problems for public health research and translation by reviewing funding streams and coordination between state and territory and national organisations.
• Dr Tara Boelsen-Robinson, a post-doctoral researcher in food retail. Tara describes the many challenges of achieving job security with a research focus which drove her to seek employment in health promotion instead.

Visit the Prevention Centre's website to download the Submission on improving alignment and coordination between the Medical Research Future Fund and Medical Research Endowment Account.

This podcast discusses a community-led program to reduce childhood injury; a successful collaboration between the First Nations community at Walgett and researchers from the University of New South Wales. Join host Gretchen Miller as she chats with guests:

• Christine Corby AM, Walgett Aboriginal Medical Service (WAMS)
• Amy Townsend, Goonimoo Mobile Children's Services
• Nellie Pollard-Wharton, UNSW Sydney
• Rebecca Ivers AM, UNSW Sydney
• Melissa Nathan, Walgett Aboriginal Medical Service (WAMS).

Visit the Prevention Centre's website to find out more about the Community-led solutions to prevent Aboriginal child injury project and the partner organisations involved in the research, including:

• Walgett Aboriginal Medical Service (WAMS)⁠
• Child Injury Prevention Partnership (CHIPP)
• Dharriwaa Elders Group.

A Senior Research Fellow at the Centre of Urban Research at RMIT University, Dr Lucy Gunn’s key interest is in understanding which urban environments are supportive of health and wellbeing outcomes. She is a lead co-investigator on a tool that allows people to understand the health impacts that come from replacing sedentary behaviour with more active behaviour.

Dr Gunn defines liveable communities as having good access to shops, services, education, healthcare, cultural opportunities and employment by using public transport, walking and cycling. She also outlines other domains of liveability.

Research shows that the built environment impacts the way people behave, which can contribute to better health and potentially reduce chronic disease. Because the built environment is difficult and expensive to build or to change, it is ideal if policies are based upon research evidence. This applies to both the new growth areas on the peripheries of cities as well as limiting growth by making use of existing infrastructure in the best possible way. The Importance of healthy liveable cities project brief explains the findings in simple English.

Dr Gunn also discusses the importance of working within teams and across disciplines and skillsets to deliver better results.

The use of e-cigarettes, or vaping, in Australia poses serious public health risks, especially among young people. In this episode, Professor Emily Banks discusses the Australian Government’s new e-cigarette product legislation reform alongside the bigger picture of vaping practices in Australia and her review of the global evidence, Health Impacts of Electronic Cigarettes.

"The latest evidence is four out of five teenagers would say it’s easy to get hold of e-cigarettes or vapes and other people are saying, oh, well we should just educate kids about the dangers, but that’s like someone being in a flood and saying, oh, by the way, don’t get wet."

Professor Emily Banks AM

Katherine is a political economist, founder of the Wellbeing Economic Alliance, and describes herself as a freelance advocate for a more humane economy.

Katherine casts a net of ideas around the distribution, or maldistribution, of wealth, resources, and power and how this impacts individuals, communities, and the planet, with a profound impact on health inequalities. Despite these flaws, there are opportunities for connection across areas that have traditionally been siloed and a move toward a wellbeing approach, one designed to deliver what people and the planet need. For example, improved levels of exercise and mental health have connections with improved liveability and public transport, and these arenas have co-benefits for us as humans living in the environment, so co-benefits for the environment as well.

With a fascination for understanding the root causes of complex issues, Katherine compels audiences to look upstream and stay curious and attentive to the connections. She recommends channeling your inner three-year-old, asking but why, but why, why, and why, until we can get to the root cause, venturing beyond symptom-by-symptom, problem-by-problem, and crisis-to-crisis solutions.

Sir Marmot's visit to Australia was hosted by Professor Helen Skouteris, Head of the Health and Social Care Unit, Monash University. Professor Skouteris is also Director of the Centre of Research Excellence in Health in Preconception and Pregnancy  (CRE HiPP), one of the CREs that contributes to the Collaboration for Enhanced Research Impact.

Join Dr Jenny Kaldor, lawyer, researcher, and policy analyst, and Maddie Heenan, Research Officer and PhD candidate, as they delve into how law, policy, and regulation affect public health, and what methods can help us better understand these relationships.

Jenny took a brief advisory role in the development of the Prevention Centre's knowledge synthesis on public health law, regulation, and policy for prevention. This synthesis draws lessons from across nine years of projects. Maddie coordinated the knowledge synthesis, and has worked in advocacy for the Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education and is currently working as a Research Officer with the Prevention Centre while undertaking a PhD with The George Institute for Global Health.

Together, Professor Anna Peeters and Dr Miranda Blake, and colleagues, have produced large quantities of evidence that show it is possible to change the way food is sold to make it more healthy, and without disadvantage to the retailers - in fact, it can benefit them.

In research conducted through Alfred Health, Professor Peeters and Dr Blake, modelled a change that saw the promotion of healthy drinks over sugary drinks in hospital onsite cafes and food services, and this has led the way for other mandated, but not legislated changes in health-services retail.

Alfred Deakin Professor Anna Peeters is Director of Deakin University’s Institute for Health Transformation; and also Director of the Centre of Research Excellence in Food Retail Environments for Health, known as REFRESH, a collaboration of eight universities and organisations, and a member of the Collaboration for Enhanced Research Impact (CERI).

Dr Miranda Blake is a dietician and Alfred Deakin Postdoctoral Research Fellow within the Global Centre for Preventive Health and Nutrition (GLOBE), a World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Obesity Prevention. Miranda leads a program of research within RE-FRESH - bringing together health services policy makers together to improve food in health facilities - and has just won the Dietitians Australia Young Achievers Award.

Established in June 2020, CERI is a joint initiative between The Australian Prevention Partnership Centre and associated NHMRC Centres of Research Excellence. We are working together to find alignment in the policy and practice implications of our work and to develop shared communications across our various projects and participating centres.

Our guests, both from Monash University School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, conducted a knowledge synthesis that examined the first 2000 days of our lives drawing on the combined research from various Centres of Research Excellence that make up the Collaboration for Enhanced Research Impact (CERI). Together they mobilised researchers from CERI to synthesise what we know about the importance of the first 2000 days in a child’s life for the prevention of future chronic disease.

Professor Helen Skouteris is a developmental psychologist and implementation science expert and head of Monash University's Health and Social Care Unit, School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine. Professor Skouteris is also Director of the Centre of Research Excellence in Health in Preconception and Pregnancy (CRE HiPP), one of the CREs that contributes to CERI.

Dr Alexandra Chung is a VicHealth Postdoctoral Research Fellow whose interests include childhood obesity prevention, and the role of policy in equitably improving children’s diets.

Join podcast host Gretchen Miller and Professor Cathie Sherrington, Chief Investigator of the Centre of Research Excellence in the Prevention of Fall-related Injuries, as they discuss the rise in fall-related injuries, the various risk factors involved, and what can be done to improve those figures. Is it about physical activity, strength or balance exercises, or are there other strategies that can have a beneficial impact?

Cathie also leads the Physical Activity Aging and Disability Research stream within the Institute for Musculoskeletal Health at the School of Public Health, University of Sydney. The CRE in the Prevention of Fall-related Injuries is a member of the Collaboration for Enhanced Research Impact (CERI).