Ethnicity, migration and cancer Understanding disparities in access and outcomes
Background
Cancer remains a major public health challenge in New South Wales (NSW), responsible for over 14,000 deaths in 2017. The state’s diverse population, with approximately 30% of residents born overseas, reflects the broader global trend of increased migration. Worldwide, more than 272 million people are classified as migrants, with nearly 30% being refugees or displaced individuals. Refugees, asylum seekers, and other migrants at risk face significant healthcare barriers, including financial constraints, language difficulties, and unfamiliarity with local health systems. These challenges contribute to disparities in disease detection and outcomes, particularly for conditions like cancer.Emerging research suggests that infection-related cancers are more prevalent in certain migrant populations compared to Australian-born individuals. However, due to the absence of refugee status identifiers in health datasets, these vulnerable groups remain underrepresented in cancer research and policy plan
Impact story - Sravanthi's story
Sravanthi's story
Sravanthi lost her first baby in the eight month of pregnancy due to pre-eclampsia. When she became pregnant again, she was enrolled in the SMARThealth Pregnancy program. This time, an ASHA worker diagnosed her high blood pressure and helped her manage her condition through to the birth of her baby boy.
“My health improved, my blood pressure stabilised, and I was able to carry the pregnancy to term. I feel much better now, both physically and mentally. I no longer live in fear.By: SravanthiSMARThealth user
Sravanthi's story
Struggling to make a living on low wages and handouts from family members, life got even harder for newly married Sravanthi when she became pregnant for the first time and had to give up her part time job processing tobacco leaves.
During the fifth month of her pregnancy, she started to experience some worrying signs that something was wrong – her legs, face, and whole body swelled up.
"At the hospi
Improving social and emotional wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children through contemporary Indigenous/cultural dance “Dance2Kinnect”
Background
For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people connection with family, community, culture and Country are all integral to a healthy self-concept. Cultural identity and cultural connectedness have been found to be associated with positive mental health outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youth. Additionally, dance is known to have multiple positive benefits for physical health, social and emotional wellbeing. Both connection to culture and cultural identity will be fostered through this contemporary cultural dance pilot program.
Aim
To better understand and articulate factors influencing successful uptake of an innovative program aimed at reducing risk factors for non-communicable disease through cultural dance among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youth
To apply this knowledge to inform effective upscale and translation of proven and promising programs across Australia.
Research Methodology
This program will be
A national framework to support government investment in prevention
Policy & Practice Report
LOTUS: Low dose cOmbinations To improve stroke oUtcomeS
Background:
Ischaemic stroke is the most common form of stroke – accounting for almost 90% of the 20 million new strokes that occur in the world each year. Stroke survivors are at a high risk of having another stroke and other serious events. This risk is even higher for patients with poorly controlled high blood pressure and cholesterol levels.
While 70% of Australian stroke survivors are discharged from hospital on medications to lower their blood pressure and cholesterol, research shows that only 1 in 3 maintain a healthy blood pressure, 1 in 5 maintain healthy cholesterol levels, and just 1 in 10 manage both long-term.
This is largely because many stroke survivors find it difficult to take their medications as prescribed, and to have their medication adjusted when needed. Many stroke survivors have limited access to specialist services after they leave the hospital and follow up appointments with their GPs are often inconsistent – especially for those in rural, regional and remo
The George Institute’s Response to the Zero Draft on NCDs and Mental Health
Policy & Practice Report
International Study of Discrimination And Stigma Outcomes (INDIGO)
Indigo is a partnership programme led by Prof Sir Graham Thornicroft from King’s College London with seven other collaborating sites in five different countries (Ethoipia, India, Tunisia, China and Nepal). The project is funded by the UK Medical Research Council (MRC). Dr Pallab K Maulik is the India site investigator who would oversee project activities at Faridabad (Haryana) site. The long term goals behind this partnership programme are to reduce the mental health treatment gap, to reduce stigma against people with mental illness, and positively modify attitudinal barriers within the primary health care, community workers, community members and mental health professionals.
The overall aims of the Indigo Partnership are: to establish a strong research collaboration to provide the infrastructure for harmonised metrics and to develop stigma reduction interventions, and to carry out platform activities to strengthen the scientific understanding of mechanisms of action of stigma proc
Vehicle safety for older drivers and passengers
BackgroundMany older people experience difficulties achieving good seatbelt fitment and comfort in vehicles. The use of comfort accessories like cushions and pads is relatively common among older people travelling in vehicles. Research has shown that some of these accessories can have a detrimental effect on safety in a crash. Medical practitioners, allied health and road safety professionals are ideally placed to provide advice to older people about how to redress these issues and how to safely achieve comfort in vehicles. The ‘Vehicle Safety for Older Drivers’ project was initiated to develop evidence-based guidelines for tailoring advice about safe and comfortable travel in vehicles as a tool for use by these practitioners. Older people also need to be able to access guidance about comfort and safety in vehicles although may not need the same level of detail. For this reason, simple informative material targeting older people to raise awareness of safety issues in vehicles, and to allow for inform
Comprehensive workplace intervention for cancer prevention in China (WECAN)
BackgroundAccording to the World Health Organization, unhealthy lifestyles relating to poor diets, physical inactivity and/or smoking are leading risk factors for cardiovascular diseases (CVD), cancer and other non-communicable diseases. The workplace is an important setting to promote health. Workplace-based disease prevention strategies have great potential to not only prevent CVD and other NCDs, but also greatly reduce the risks and burden of cancer. ObjectiveThis project will develop a scalable workplace cancer prevention and health promotion model in China; and it will implement and evaluate the effectiveness and acceptability of this model, as well as scale up in workplaces of various regions in China.InterventionThe project will conduct online and offline health promotion interventions in 15 workplaces across three Chinese cities - Xiangtan of Hunan province, Nanchang of Sichuan province, and Wuhai of Inner Mongolian autonomous region. The interventions cover the four areas: (1) health-relate
Economic Burden of Tuberculosis in India
The national tuberculosis strategic plan for 2017-22 envisages allocating substantial funds to mitigate the financial hardships of tuberculosis patients in India. Plans are underway to reimburse travel expenses for diagnostic and treatment purposes and financial assistance to cover the cost of nutritional support during treatment.
However, it is well accepted that globally tuberculosis control programmes remain under funded and this is particularly true for India as its health budget is one of the lowest in the world. Therefore, to ensure proper utilization of the available resources and to plan for any social protection measures for tuberculosis patients, cost information regarding the disease is important. There is clear dearth of a comprehensive cost study on tuberculosis in India. The proposed study will be an attempt toward to fill this gap.
Aim:
To estimate the cost of treating drug susceptible and multi drug resistant tuberculosis in India from a patient’s perspective. The study will do
Produce Prescription: Improving diet and health outcomes of pregnant women with, or at increased risk of, gestational diabetes and with food insecurity in Australia
Background
Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is a condition characterised by higher-than-normal blood glucose concentrations during pregnancy with immediate and long-term health consequences. Gestational diabetes affects more than 1 in 6 Australian pregnant women. Healthy eating advice is the first line treatment for women with, or at high-risk of developing GDM. But for pregnant women with food insecurity (i.e. barriers to affording or accessing nutritious food) following the dietary advice given can be challenging.
‘Food is Medicine’ programs integrate nutrition interventions into healthcare to improve the diet of clinical populations. ‘Produce Prescription’ is one approach, where free or subsidised healthy foods are prescribed to people with a clinical need and who experience food insecurity as part of their healthcare. Our study is the global first randomised controlled trial of ‘Produce Prescription’ versus usual care in pregnancy.
Aim
Our study aims to test wh
Submission to Senate Inquiry on Greenwashing
Policy & Practice Report
