Search

"Everywhen: Australia and the Language of Deep History" is a book that explores Indigenous perspectives on time and history. The book consists of twelve essays and an introduction by the editors, who aim to incorporate Indigenous temporalities into modern historical thinking. The essays in the book alternate between Indigenous and non-Indigenous perspectives, highlighting the differences in understanding and conceptualizing time and history. The book emphasizes the importance of blending different understandings of the past to enrich our overall historical understanding. [Extracted from the article]

In her introduction, by bringing the book into the present and not allowing the modern welfare state off the hook, Beaumont prepares us to make sense of the Great Depression from a perspective based in the here and now. Beaumont's chapter twenty-six, titled "Women at Risk", further steps outside of existing Depression Era historiography, addressing a highly overlooked sector in most historical examinations of the period. Australia's Great Depression: How a Nation Shattered by the Great War Survived the Worst Economic Crisis It Has Ever Faced: By Joan Beaumont. [Extracted from the article]

Background: Electronic medical record (EMR) systems provide timely access to clinical information and have been shown to improve medication safety. However, EMRs can also create opportunities for error, including system-related errors or errors that were unlikely or not possible with the use of paper medication charts. This study aimed to determine the detection and mitigation strategies adopted by a health district in Australia to target system-related errors and to explore stakeholder views on strategies needed to curb future system-related errors from emerging. Methods: A qualitative descriptive study design was used comprising semi-structured interviews. Data were collected from three hospitals within a health district in Sydney, Australia, between September 2020 and May 2021. Interviews were conducted with EMR users and other key stakeholders (e.g. clinical informatics team members). Participants were asked to reflect on how system-related errors changed over time, and to describe approaches taken by their organisation to detect and mitigate these errors. Thematic analysis was conducted iteratively using a general inductive approach, where codes were assigned as themes emerged from the data. Results: Interviews were conducted with 25 stakeholders. Participants reported that most system-related errors were detected by front-line clinicians. Following error detection, clinicians either reported system-related errors directly to the clinical informatics team or submitted reports to the incident information management system. System-related errors were also reported to be detected via reports run within the EMR, or during organisational processes such as incident investigations or system enhancement projects. EMR redesign was the main approach described by participants for mitigating system-related errors, however other strategies, like regular user education and minimising the use of hybrid systems, were also reported. Conclusions: Initial detection of system-related errors relies heavily on front-line clinicians, however other organisational strategies that are proactive and layered can improve the systemic detection, investigation, and management of errors. Together with EMR design changes, complementary error mitigation strategies, including targeted staff education, can support safe EMR use and development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the strategies used by Aboriginal young people to build positive relationships and sexual wellbeing. It does so to counter the risk-focussed narratives present in much existing research and to showcase the resourcefulness of Aboriginal young people. We used peer-interview methods to collect qualitative data from 52 Aboriginal young people living in western Sydney, Australia. Participants reported a strong desire to stay safe and healthy in their sexual relationships and to achieve this they relied heavily on oral communication and yarning strategies. Participants viewed communication as a way to gain or give advice (about bodies, infections, pregnancy, relationships); to assess the acceptability and safety of potential partners; to negotiate consent with partners; to build positive relationships; and to get themselves out of unhealthy relationships. Participants also discussed 'self-talk' as a strategy for building sexual wellbeing, referring to narratives of self-respect and pride in culture as important in establishing Aboriginal young people's positive views of self and as deserving of respectful and safe sexual relationships. These findings suggest that future programmes and interventions based on yarning could be well-regarded, given it is a cultural form of pedagogy and a strategy Aboriginal young people already use to build positive relationships and identities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australia has a hidden but growing problem with household food insecurity, revealing the failure of conventional food infrastructures to support human flourishing. Disruptions to employment and livelihoods due to pandemic lockdowns have exacerbated household food insecurity, evincing the uneven geography of food access in countries globally, including Australia. Increasing demand for food relief had been observed prior to the COVID‐19 pandemic and has been met by food relief providers, which we consider as infrastructures of care addressing growing levels of hunger. This paper reveals COVID‐19's many impacts on the food relief sector across Metropolitan Sydney, New South Wales. It analyses both a questionnaire of food relief providers in 2022 and media articles, social media posts, reports, and websites. It provides much‐needed insights into the impacts of pandemic lockdowns on the demand for food, interruptions to food provisioning, changes to food supply, and alterations made to suppliers' ways of operating. Those insights show how infrastructures of care are place‐based, responsive, dynamic, and constrained by caring capacities. Such insights are increasingly important for understanding infrastructural failures, documenting the real extent of household food insecurity, and challenging dominant discourses of Australia as a food‐secure nation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Major depressive disorder (MDD) can have severe impacts on function and quality of life. Up to one third of patients will have an inadequate response to their first line of treatment, with subsequent lines of therapy associated with lower remission rates and higher relapse rates. Recently esketamine has become available for Australian patients, and this agent provides an additional treatment option for those with MDD who have had an inadequate response to two or more antidepressant therapies during the current moderate to severe depressive episode. This paper provides an expert panel's practical recommendations and clinical guidance for establishing esketamine clinics in Australia. Methods: An expert panel (n = 11) comprising psychiatrists, mental health care nurses, pharmacists, and individuals with experience establishing esketamine clinics was convened in Sydney. The panel developed practical recommendations and clinical guidance, which were then further refined. Results: Five key areas were identified: practical considerations for esketamine clinic set‐up, including multidisciplinary care considerations; patient selection; administering esketamine; adverse event management and long‐term follow‐up. Conclusions: Guidance presented in this paper should assist Australian clinicians to set up an esketamine clinic, and provide practical advice on the infrastructure and clinical requirements for treatment of patients with this agent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assessment policy internationally places significant importance on the use of assessment criteria across all subject areas. However, in order to ensure effective use of criteria, it is critical for teachers to develop an in-depth understanding of them. This paper reports on a study of a range of Australian Science teachers' views and uses of criteria in practical work. Six Science teachers working in secondary schools across Sydney were interviewed, their classroom activities were observed, and the data obtained were analysed using a qualitative constant comparative method. The findings indicate that despite the emphasis on Assessment for Learning (AfL) in assessment policy in Australia, teachers generally consider criteria as a marking tool, for Assessment of Learning (AoL), rather than a learning instrument. Consequently, they use criteria exclusively as a framework for assigning grades. This paper argues that teachers need to consider the use of criteria from a learning perspective in addition to its other multipurpose functions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Yet the relatively small presence of Pacific Islanders in Australia can mask the extent of Australia's presence in Pacific people's lives. The theme of Australia's national amnesia about the Pacific is present one way or another throughout the book. Not all island populations have admittedly had or have that level of access and Hoskins does not ignore the history of such barriers, including the perception of New Zealand as a "back-door". [Extracted from the article]

Indeed, by tying together stories of individuals, families, communities, countries, and international systems, Balint and Kalman sensitively show the breadth of the histories within which we all live our lives. Balint and Kalman skilfully show the different ways people understand themselves and their journeys; the way they make sense of what they have endured and achieved. Smuggled: An Illegal History of Journeys to Australia: By Ruth Balint and Julie Kalman. [Extracted from the article]

This article explores the role of public opinion in shaping Australian foreign policy. It emphasizes the need for an informed public and discusses the changing global landscape, with the decline of globalism and the rise of nationalism and protectionism. The article highlights the challenges Australia faces in navigating this changing world and the role of the recently released foreign policy White Paper. It emphasizes the importance of engaging the Australian public, including the new generation of policymakers and the diverse society, in foreign policy discussions and decision-making. [Extracted from the article]

1 Sydney School of Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney;... I Implementation Science 2023, i B 18(2): b SP a sp Mitchell Sarkies and Hossai Gul contributed equally to this paper SP b sp Andrew Baillie, Lauren Christie, Caleb Ferguson, Julie Gawthorne, Helen Goldsmith, Nicolette Hodyl, Natasha Howard, Karen Hutchinson, Marlena Klaic, Joanna Moullin, Nicole Nathan, Sanne Peters, Nicole Rankin, Ben Smith, Serene Yoong. Only one study reported facilitators to the IMPLEMENTATION of CDS systems, none reported on barriers to the implementation of CDS systems and none reported any information on successful strategies to MAINTAIN implementation of CDS systems. B Methods b A sequence of three studies were conducted via a mixed method methodology and structured by the process model Implementation Mapping (IM) to guide the development of implementation strategies. B Conclusions b Process mapping successfully identifies site-specific variation in complex clinical processes and facilitates a shared understanding of the current systems and factors that affect implementation. [Extracted from the article]

This paper draws on the example of Dyarubbin (Nepean River), an urban river in Sydney, Australia, to illuminate how community engagement facilitates the expression of diverse river values. Combining Indigenous water justice, critical planning scholarship, and a scalar approach to values, and drawing on qualitative research conducted in 2021, we discuss how diverse community values have been represented in strategies for the river and consider which values are overlooked in these processes. We conclude by arguing that values for Dyarubbin are contested and diverse, however the rigid nature of engagement frameworks and the scalar nature of government responsibilities have reduced engagement's influence on planning outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Upper Permian sedimentary successions in the northern Sydney Basin have been the subject of several stratigraphic, sedimentological and coal petrographic studies, and recently, extensive U-Pb zircon dating has been carried out on tuffs in the Newcastle Coal Measures. However, detailed petrographic and geochemical studies of these successions are lacking. These are important because a major change in tectonic setting occurred prior to the Late Permian because of the Hunter-Bowen Orogeny that caused the uplift of the Carboniferous and Devonian successions in the Tamworth Group and Tablelands Complex adjacent to the Sydney Basin. This should be reflected in the detrital makeup of the Upper Permian rocks. This study provides data that confirms major changes did take place at this time. Petrographic analysis indicates that the source area is composed of sedimentary, felsic volcanic and plutonic and low-grade metamorphic rocks. Conglomerate clast composition analysis confirms these results, revealing a source region that is composed of felsic volcanics, cherts, mudstones and sandstones. Geochemical analysis suggests that the sediments are geochemically mature and have undergone a moderate degree of weathering. The provenance data presented in this paper indicate that the southern New England Orogen is the principal source of detritus in the basin. Discrimination diagrams confirm that the source rocks derive from an arc-related, contractional setting and agree with the provenance analyses that indicate sediment deposition in a retroarc foreland basin. This study offers new insights on the provenance and tectonic setting of the Northern Sydney Basin, eastern Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the impact of daylight saving time (DST) on fatal road crashes in Australia. I exploit within year transitions to and from DST in a regression discontinuity in time framework. To examine the long run effect of the policy, I use trials of DST implemented in various states, and a DST extension due to the Sydney Olympics. Neither the transition to or out of DST, nor the long run effects of DST have an impact on fatalities on the road. However, there is evidence of reallocation of accidents over the day due to ambient light. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To describe a recent process by which mental health service sector leaders identified key elements of strategic, systemic and structural mental health reform. These elements could guide an incoming Federal government. Method: The paper describes the process undertaken by the Sydney Mental Health Policy Forum between 2019 and 2022. This work generated principles, key domains and finally a set of actions. Results: Five immediate actions were identified that are cost neutral or require minimal investment. Five further actions requiring realignment of existing funds and/or new funds were also identified. Conclusions: The task of mental health reform in Australia is both large and overdue. Continued investment in fragmented or piecemeal programmes and services will not propel desired change. Reform must facilitate new regional control of planning, funding and responding to community mental health needs. The actions identified by the Forum set out a menu of opportunities to guide reform over the life of the next Parliament, starting now. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Communicating health information quickly and effectively with diverse populations has been essential during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, health communication practices are often top down and poorly designed to rapidly meet diverse health literacy, cultural and contextual needs of the population. This paper describes a research and practice partnership focused on health literacy, multicultural health, and community engagement to address COVID-19 in Australia. The partnership became influential in the local and state-based response to the COVID-19 Delta outbreak in Western and South Western Sydney, an area of high cultural and socioeconomic diversity. Our approach, bringing together academic researchers and frontline health staff working with multicultural populations using a model of co-design and community engagement and action via the "4 M model," has been successful. It supported the Western Sydney community to achieve some of the highest vaccination rates in the world (>90%). There is an ongoing need to engage respectfully and responsively with communities to address specific challenges that they face and tailor communications and supports accordingly for successful pandemic management. Combining co-designed empirical research with community engagement and action ensures needs are robustly identified and can be appropriately addressed to support an effective public health response. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The need to recognise and account for the influence of working from home on commuting activity has never been so real as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Not only does this change the performance of the transport network, it also means that the way in which transport modellers and planners use models estimated on a typical weekday of travel and expand it up to the week and the year must be questioned and appropriately revised to adjust for the quantum of working from home. Although teleworking is not a new phenomenon, what is new is the ferocity by which it has been imposed on individuals throughout the world, and the expectation that working from home is no longer a temporary phenomenon but one that is likely to continue to some non-marginal extent given its acceptance and revealed preferences from both many employees and employ where working from home makes good sense. This paper formalises the relationship between working from home and commuting by day of the week and time of day for two large metropolitan areas in Australia, Brisbane and Sydney, using a mixed logit choice model, identifying the influences on such choices together with a mapping model between the probability of working from home and socioeconomic and other contextual influences that are commonly used in strategic transport models to predict demand for various modes by location. The findings, based on Wave 3 (approximately 6 months from the initial outbreak of the pandemic) of an ongoing data collection exercise, provide the first formal evidence for Australia in enabling transport planners to adjust their predicted modal shares and overall modal travel activity for the presence of working from home. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the needs and expectations of communities towards their urban environments often vary, landscape management strategies can often be prone to fail in the absence of social considerations. It is therefore incumbent on policy-makers to investigate and attempt to reconcile diverse community perceptions toward the natural and built environment for more equitable governance. This is of particular interest when planning and managing nature-based solutions (NBS) for river protection. We considered this challenge in understanding human values, perceptions and behaviour in a multilayered ecosystem that includes waterways, NBS, green open spaces, and a built environment. This paper analyses perceptions and behaviour around a public urban park next to the Georges River in Sydney Australia, utilizing a proxy-based approach and a mixed-method comprising community surveys and behavioural mapping. The results showed that while users perceive the significance of the urban river environment differently, naturalistic (ecological), humanistic (recreational) and utilitarian (well-being) values are dominant. Urban river catchments are highly valued for recreational purposes, with a strong perception of potential flooding hazards. Through exploring the literature, we recognized that the dominancy of leisure-related values around urban river catchments can be generalized to similar cases worldwide. While NBS, as an urban stormwater management solution, address some user values (e.g., naturalistic) around urban river catchments, they may lack further delivery of humanistic and utilitarian values due to the poor integration with recreational and cultural spaces. It was also the case around the Georges River, where low prominence of cultural features was observed. We concluded that NBS development around Georges River and other urban river catchments should incorporate socio-cultural considerations and community values, in particular the ones related to leisure. The gaps between users' beliefs and behaviour do not greatly challenge governance, provided that the decision-makers utilise these gaps for optimising management actions. • We used mixed-method approach to show community values in urban environment. • Behavioural mapping was a complementary process in value perception analysis. • Study highlighted the importance of ecological, recreational and utilitarian values. • Existing NBS addresses naturalistic values, but lacks cultural, recreational values. • Management actions need to consider socio-cultural values and landscape integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

CoastSnap is a low-cost community beach monitoring program that turns everyday smartphones into devices to measure coastal response to storms, sea-level rise, human modifications and other factors. Underpinning CoastSnap is a stainless-steel smartphone cradle that is installed overlooking a beach in a location easily accessible to the public. Using the cradle for image positioning, passers-by simply take a photo of the coast and upload it to a centralized database, which in turn provides a crowd-sourced record of coastline change over time. Behind this simple idea are advanced image processing algorithms that then enable the shoreline position (and other coastal features) to be mapped from the community snapshots in a scientifically rigorous manner. First established in Sydney, Australia in 2017, the network of CoastSnap stations has grown rapidly over the past five years to now encompass 200 monitoring locations in 21 countries. Analysis of the 44 Australian stations managed by the Authors indicates strong community participation, with over 10,000 images and 4000 community participants to date and an image submission frequency ranging from approximately weekly to daily (average = 2.6 images/station/week). Example practical applications of CoastSnap include: as a tool to monitor high-frequency shoreline change and coastal inlet dynamics; to support conservation efforts on protected coastlines; and to directly inform the timing of dredging and beach nourishment activities. This paper describes the background and evolution of the project and discusses its successes, challenges as well as future directions. • CoastSnap demonstrates how community smartphone images can accurately monitor coastal change. • Global CoastSnap network now comprises 200 stations in 21 countries. • Participation statistics in Australia indicate strong community uptake (weekly to sub-daily imagery). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

'City Deals' are new governance instruments for urban development. Vast evidence exists on the relationship between urban factors and health equity, but little research applies a health equity lens to urban policy-making. This paper does precisely that for the Western Sydney City Deal (WSCD) in Australia. We conducted a critical discourse analysis of publicly available documents and interviews with the WSCD's main architects, applying insights from relevant theories. We find 'pro-growth' discourse to encourage economic investment dominates any references to disadvantage. Interviewees maintained the WSCDs fundamental purpose is to rebalance urban investment toward the historically disadvantaged West. However, the WSCD makes limited reference to health and none to equity. Institutionalised governance practices that favour private investments in infrastructure remain the dominant force behind the WSCD. We document how a shift to 'place-based' infrastructure has promise for equity but struggles to overcome institutionalised approaches to urban investments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The absence of a clear model of care for services supporting pregnant women and mothers with substance use disorders has impeded opportunities to build an evidence base for the effectiveness of these services. Previous research has typically focused on the needs of pregnant women or mothers, as two distinct groups. This paper explores service providers' perceptions of key components of a model of care, extending from perinatal care to community-based support for up to 17 years post-delivery. A model of care is outlined and feasibility factors affecting implementation are highlighted.Methods: Qualitative methods were adopted as a first step to informing development of the model of care. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with thirty-eight staff providing a range of substance use in pregnancy and parenting services (SUPPS) in hospital and community-based agencies, in a metropolitan health district in Sydney, Australia. Interview data was entered into NVivo and analysed using constant comparative methods.Results: Guiding principles for the model of care included integrated care, harm reduction and person-centredness. Practice approaches integral to the model of care were promoting engagement with women, flexible service provision, trauma-informed care, and continuity of care. Feasibility factors influencing implementation of the model of care included fragmentation or siloing of the service network and workforce sustainability.Conclusions: A harm reduction approach was crucial for promoting engagement of women with SUPPS, particularly child protection services. A greater focus on providing ongoing community-based support for mothers also has the potential to achieve sustainable positive outcomes for women and children. Implementation of the SUPPS model of care could be undermined by threats to integration of service delivery and continuity of care. Further research is needed to explore consumer perspectives and inform the model of care as a framework for evaluation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]