Enhancing ambition on climate policy through co-design

Health has often been a peripheral consideration in the development of climate policies despite climate measures having a material impact on health outcomes. In today’s post, VicHealth Research Impact Grant recipients Annabelle Workman and Kathryn Bowen, both of the Melbourne Climate Futures at the University of Melbourne, share their findings on addressing barriers and meeting needs through the co-design of ‘healthier’ climate policy development.

You can access the toolkit here: healthier climate policies toolkit.

The Quiet Crisis: Challenges, changes and co-production to hear the voices of healthcare staff

In complex healthcare systems, staff voice is vital for ensuring healthcare professionals and service providers uphold safe, ethical and high-quality care. When staff are unable to voice concerns about patient safety or their own wellbeing, mistakes and misconduct are more likely to go unaddressed, allowing scandals to happen or last longer. Organisations such as the National Health Service (NHS) have been long aware of these risks and currently use “speaking up” policies to combat the silencing or neglect of staff concerns. After 9 years of speaking up policy many NHS staff still find themselves unheard or silenced. Now, the U.K. government’s Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), which oversees the NHS, proposes new plans to remove these existing policies and introduce new staff voice policy under the NHS Fit for the Future strategy (NHS England, 2025). In this blog post Sukhwinder Essie Kaur unpacks the failings of Speaking Up and explores how co-production research may be a key player in designing new policies and mechanism that better support NHS staff to voice their concerns.

Police contact deaths for those with poor mental health

The role played by the police in our wider mental health system has never been truly resolved. In both Australia and the United Kingdom, as across the world, discussion is at its most intense when considering police contact deaths involving those of us affected by our mental health. In this blog, Michael Brown explores the complex issues behind tragic outcomes and starts to think about how to embed “lessons learned” into policy.

Making and unmaking evidence: The ethics of using nudge

Dr Colette Einfeld has recently published Knowledge, Evidence, and Policymaking: Behavioural Sciences in Australia, drawing on her PhD about nudge and behavioural science. Here she explains how she came across the concept of nudging, her increasingly critical approach to the field, and the book’s main arguments.

The ripple effects of Online Food Delivery Services on human and planetary health: Policy actions for healthy and sustainable future

Online Food Delivery Services are a popular format for acquiring quick and easy out-of-home meals. This platform offers the perfect mix of convenience and indulgence delivered at your doorstep, but at what cost? This week, VicHealth (@VicHealth) Postdoctoral Research Fellow Dr. Adyya Gupta (@AdyyaGupta) from Deakin University (@IHT_Deakin @GLOBE_obesity) discusses the ripple effects of Online Food Delivery Services on human and planetary health, and offers policy actions for a healthy and sustainable future.

Intense heat changes our biology and can make us age significantly faster: study

2024 has been confirmed by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) as the warmest year on record. This new data supports that climate change is making extreme heat increasingly intense and frequent. Exposure to heat has been linked with reduced labour productivity and many adverse health impacts, such as mental illness, hospitalisation, preterm birth and even death. In today’s post, VicHealth (@VicHealth) postdoctoral fellow Rongbin Xu (@RongbinXu) and Shuai Li (@Dr_Shuai_Li), both of Monash University (@MonashMSDI), provide commentary on new research which found that heat can accelerate the pace of biological aging. This story provides new evidence that supports the necessity of well communicated heat action plans as well as progressive climate mitigation strategies to limit global warming, particularly in a world experiencing rapid population aging. This article first appeared in The Conversation; you can read it in its original version here.

How policy intentions shift: Research on NDIS implementation

As the NDIS faces significant ongoing reforms, it can be useful to look back at where we’ve come from – from disability rights to fights for entitlements, and from investment to cost containment, Eloise Hummell summarises her recent co-authored article on policy drift and evolution in the NDIS.

Policy and governance, Creating using evidencePower to Persuade20 February 2025NDIS, Disability

2024 wrapped - holiday reading from Power to Persuade

Creating using evidence, AdvocacyPower to Persuade20 December 2024Policy advocacy

A Window of Opportunity to Regulate Commercial Foods for Infants and Toddlers in Australia

Health experts are concerned about poor nutritional quality and misleading marketing of many commercially available foods for infants and toddlers. In today’s post, VicHealth (@VicHealth) Research Fellow Alexandra Chung (@Chung_Alexandra) from Monash University (@Monash_FMNHS @MonashNutrition) explains how government regulation could improve these products and protect the health of young children in Australia.

Creating using evidencePower to Persuade28 October 2024Children, public health

The Big Question: How can we help end child poverty in Australia?

This week's posts are being sourced by the Life Course Centre(@lifecourseAust) to continue to the conversation on social and economic disadvantage following last week’s Anti-Poverty Week (@AntiPovertyWeek). Today @lifecourseAust researchers share approaches that could help end child poverty in Australia.

Creating using evidenceLife Course Centre21 October 2024Children, Poverty, housing and homelessness

Using popular smartphone app FrogID to think about the relational nature of citizen science

Katie Moon, Sophie Yates, Maureen Thompson and Corey Callaghan have recently published some research in People and Nature about frogs, citizen science, and agential realism. Here they explore their findings about how we can think more relationally in the field of citizen science.

Creating using evidencePower to Persuade29 August 2024co-production, environment, climate change

The Rise of Online Food Delivery Services: Global trends and their disruptive impact on our food environments

Online Food Delivery Services are becoming a popular mode of purchasing out-of-home meals, with a projected global increase from 800 million users in 2018 to almost 2.9 billion users in 2029. This week, VicHealth Postdoctoral Researcher Adyya Gupta (@AdyyaGupta) and Deakin Distinguished Professor Anna Peeters (@AnnaPeetersAus), of Deakin University (@IHT_Deakin @GLOBE_obesity) explain the burgeoning trend of online food delivery services and their implications for public health.

Creating using evidence, InnovationPower to Persuade22 July 2024technology, health, Population health

Colombian transitional justice: the need for prioritizing local voices in peacebuilding.

The term ‘transitional justice’ encompasses a wide range of initiatives and mechanisms to address legacies left by human rights atrocities committed amidst situations of armed conflict or in transitions from autocratic to democratic rule. Mechanisms like the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, The International Criminal Tribunals for Rwanda or the Former Yugoslavia (ICTR/ICTY) or Timor Leste’s Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation in East Timor (CAVR in Portuguese) are among some of the most internationally known transitional justice processes. In this blog post Dr Louis Monroy-Santander explains the need to prioritise local voices in peacebuilding.

Thinking differently about evidence: Collaborating with policy makers to create, share and apply knowledge for public health

Public health research generates a wealth of evidence but there are challenges when it comes to making that evidence available to audiences beyond the research sector. In today’s post, VicHealth (@VicHealth) Research Fellow Alexandra Chung (@Chung_Alexandra) of Monash University (@MonashNutrition) discusses a unique project that demonstrates the value of collaborative approaches to create and share knowledge with policymakers.

Holiday reading from Power to Persuade

Creating using evidence, Advocacy, Policy and governancePower to Persuade19 December 2023Policy making, Poverty, gender

Deadlier than flames: The devastating impacts of bushfire smoke

2023 has made headlines as the hottest year in recorded history, and Australia is gearing up for a serious bushfire season. In today’s post, VicHealth Postdoctoral Research Fellow Rongbin Xu (@RongbinXu) of Monash University (@MonashUni) shares his research into how bushfire smoke is an increasingly hazardous public health threat and needs a more focused policy response.

Creating using evidencePower to Persuade21 November 2023climate change, public health, public policy, health

LGBTQ+ training in social care should be mandatory for all social workers

Accessibility, Creating using evidence, Lived experience, Service Delivery, Social Service FuturesPower to Persuade25 October 2023Policy making, LGBTIQ+ issues, social care, social services

What research says about studying with the Adult Migrant English Program (AMEP)

This year marked the 75th year of Australia’s Adult Migrant English Program (AMEP). It also saw the release of the largest study in the AMEP’s history to better understand participation in the program, and the AMEP’s broader impact on employment and welfare outcomes. Associate Professor Francis Mitrou and Dr Ha Nguyen from Telethon Kids Institute (@telethonkids) and Life Course Centre (@lifecourseAust) outline some of the key findings.

Rethinking scholarly assumptions about vulnerable workers: A call for reflection and action

Creating using evidencePower to Persuade31 August 2023employment, work

When policy lessons don’t speak for themselves – a “traveller’s guide” for practitioners of policy learning

Policy lessons don’t travel on their own - a lot goes into helping them from their place of origin to new homes (or stopping them from getting there). Drawing on research with disaster management personnel in Queensland, Dr Jenny van der Arend (@JennyvdA) and A/Prof Alastair Stark distil a ‘traveller’s guide’ of practical insights for policymakers who want to help lessons from place to place. The post is based on their new article in the Journal of European Public Policy and is free to read until October 2023.

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