Our research impact

Deficiencies in Australian youth justice legislation

Our Social Work research has impacted on policy reform in the youth justice system.

In collaboration with the Victorian Children’s court, Dr Susan Baidawi’s research generated robust Australian evidence of the characteristics of children involved with child protection services due to maltreatment, who are twelve times more likely to enter youth justice supervision. Despite being among the most vulnerable and disadvantaged youth, such “cross-over’ children were previously absent from the Victorian government’s policy framework, due to a lack of evidence to inform a targeted policy direction.

Specific reforms on crossover children outlined in the Victorian Youth Justice Strategic Plan (2020-30), were based on key recommendations from Susan’s study, including: targeted and intensive early intervention in the young persons’ life; strengthened approaches to diversion of young people away from legal processes; and the implementation of a state-wide policy to reduce the criminalisation of children in residential care.

Falls prevention

Our falls prevention research has demonstrated to the world what does and does not work in the prevention of falls amongst hospitalised older adults.

Falls are commonly the most frequent adverse event that impacts on the safety of people being treated in hospitals. Correspondingly, great effort and expense is accrued trying to prevent hospital falls. However, this does not mean these resources are well spent.

Professor Terry Haines's research has led the world in

• Mapping and costing falls prevention activities - We have identified that each year, approximately $590 million is consumed across Australia in the provision of falls prevention practices that do not have evidence indicating that they reduce falls in hospitals.
• Generating evidence to show which falls prevention practices do not work - We have conducted trials demonstrating that routinely provided falls prevention practices such as use of falls risk screening tools, low-low beds, and multifactorial targeted intervention programs do not reduce falls.
• Developing and demonstrating an approach that does work - The Safe Recovery patient education program has been tested in three trials. The most recent trial involved rolling the Safe Recovery program out across geriatric rehabilitation wards in Western Australia leading to a 40% reduction in falls, 35% reduction in falls with injury, and 45% reduction in the proportion of patients who fell.

Development of patient-reported outcome measure

Our Physiotherapy research initiated the development of measuring patient reported outcomes, which can improve the quality and effectiveness of healthcare interventions.

Dr Sze-Ee Soh developed the “Monash University cardiac PROM (MC-PROM)” to assess recovery of patients following a percutaneous coronary intervention. The MC-PROM was subsequently included in a composite measure for the Victorian Cardiac Outcomes Registry to assess post-intervention outcomes.

Using Rasch analysis, five items were identified in being reliable and valid measures of patient-reported outcomes following percutaneous coronary interventions. It was also established that the MC-PROM has robust measurement properties including good structural validity and acceptable internal consistency.

The MC-PROM has been incorporated into the Victorian Cardiac Outcomes Registry (VCOR) to capture the patient’s perspective of their recovery 30 days following their procedure. The methods of this validation study are also novel and Sze-Ee has since been invited to replicate the study in other registry projects including the Victorian Lung Cancer Registry (VLCR) and the Australian Orthopaedic Association National Joint Replacement Registry (AOANJRR).

Humanity and compassion training in healthcare workers

Our Social Work research has resulted in the development of compassion training to health care workers.

This research investigated the relationship between the perception of common humanity and compassion in healthcare workers. Common humanity has been proposed as the prerequisite for unbiased universal compassion. There is an absence of empirical research in this area.

There were two aspects to the research conducted by Dr Debbie Ling. First, a pre/post intervention was conducted to investigate the impact of viewing common humanity scenarios on healthcare workers’ level of compassion. Validated scales were used for perspective taking, common humanity and compassion. There was a statistically significant increase in levels of compassion for healthcare workers. This was the first study in the world to produce empirical evidence that viewing common humanity scenarios can increase healthcare worker compassion.

The second part of the research involved developing, trialling and evaluating a single session compassion training session focusing on common humanity.

The compassion training has been delivered to healthcare workers at Monash Health, Epworth HealthCare, Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP), Mercy Health and Perth Children’s hospital.

Service re-design

Our Occupational therapy research has resulted in recognition within the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) executive of the value of a systematic approach to evidence.

Associate Professor Lisa O’Brien joined the Research and Evaluation within the NDIA to set up the Evidence Synthesis team. Lisa’s team has delivered rapid systematic reviews that have been incorporated into service re-design and evidence-informed policy including:

• Intermediary services to assist people with disabilities to implement individualised funding plans (including reviews of impact of Local Area Coordinator and Support Coordinator roles)
• National Community connectors program (for difficult to reach communities, such as indigenous peoples)
• Analyses of Psychometric properties of assessment tools for Independent Functional Assessment pilots
• Sexual supports for people with disability

Development of tool to diagnose condition

Our research has led to the development of a tool that is now used around the world.

Associate Professor Cylie Williams developed a tool to diagnose a children’s gait condition called Idiopathic Toe Walking (ITW) during her PhD. This condition impacts one in twenty children. Toe walking gait can also frequently be present in more serious conditions, like Cerebral Palsy, Muscular Dystrophy or Autism.

Since publication, the tool has been translated into Turkish, Spanish and German. In the past five years, it has been referenced as the inclusion tool for eight ITW clinical studies. The tool questions, and its exact question wordings are used on the Mayo Clinic ITW assessment information webpage.

Cylie was invited to teach about this tool and associated ITW research at the College of Podiatry Annual Conference Bournemouth (UK), Combined Sections Meeting American Physical Therapy Association (UK), Atlanta Children’s Hospital Orthopedics Grand Round (UK), and Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology (USA).

Cylie was also the senior author in research developing a standardised assessment proforma, called the Gait And Lower Limb Observation in Paediatrics (GALLOP). The research utilised Delphi methodology to gain consensus and agreement of valid and reliable assessments for children presenting with foot and leg conditions to physiotherapy and podiatry services. This proforma is now embedded in undergraduate podiatry courses at eight of nine Australian universities, and three of 13 UK universities.