Research from Department of Health Economics, Wellbeing and Society (DHEWS)

Abstract

In this seminar from DHEWS, Liana will talk about epidemiological and intervention research focusing on the mental health of dads, with a discussion on the role of qualitative methodology for asking important questions. Lyndall will talk about a team project with Comcare on the health risks for older workers and Time and Money pressures in families and the mental health of adolescents, and Richard will present on two recent papers looking at the mental health of Australia’s tertiary students and emerging adults. All these projects utilise life course approaches and/or social epidemiology to better understand how context and resources impact health and health inequities.

Speakers

Associate Professor Liana Leach is a highly experienced mental health epidemiologist at the National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health (NCEPH). Liana's research is grounded in a social determinants of health framework, and she has taught post-graduate courses explaining this approach. Liana has been awarded $4.9 million in funding as a research investigator on a wide range of projects – including government funding (e.g. Medical Research Future Fund, National Health and Medical Research Council, Australian Research Council) and from NGOs (e.g. Beyondblue, Rotary Health, Raising Children’s Network).  Liana has published 80 peer-reviewed scientific journal articles, and has co-authored several government reports (including reports describing the impacts of the COVID pandemic on mental health in Australia). Liana will talk about epidemiological and intervention research focusing on the mental health of dads, with a discussion on the role of qualitative methodology for asking important questions.

Professor Lyndall Strazdins is an ARC Future Fellow at NCEPH. She is a recognised leader in the field of work, family and wellbeing, especially the role played by work time and the pressures and health challenges for families to combine work with caring, or for young adults to combine work with study. Her research focuses on contemporary predicaments of work and care and their health and gender equity consequences, viewing health as inter-linked within families. More recently she has been leading theory and evidence on time as a social determinant of health, viewing time as a resource, like money, which underpins inequality and is fundamental for peoples’ capacity to be healthy. Her most recent work explores the concept of the Hour Glass Ceiling, a form of workplace discrimination based on time and excessive availability. Lyndall will talk on a team project with Comcare on the health risks for older workers and Time and Money pressures in families and the mental health of adolescents

Associate Professor Richard Burns is a behavioural scientist and psychometrician at NCEPH where he is Co-Head of the Department of Health Economics, Wellbeing and Society. He led the development of the Brief Scales of Flourishing (BS-F), validated single-item measures of flourishing and languishing, and has shown that the psychometric structure of major wellbeing and mental health measures varies across the lifespan. His expertise spans longitudinal, multilevel and structural equation modelling. Author of 129 peer-reviewed articles and a widely cited SAGE research methods textbook, he is a Tier 2 senior collaborator on the Global Burden of Disease study. Richard will present on two recent papers looking at the mental health of Australia’s tertiary students and emerging adults.