Background: There is increasing interest in using systems thinking to tackle ‘wicked’ policy problems in preventive health, but this can be challenging for policy-makers because the literature is amorphous and often highly... more
Background: There is increasing interest in using systems thinking to tackle ‘wicked’ policy problems in preventive health, but this can be challenging for policy-makers because the literature is amorphous and often highly theoretical. Little is known about how best to support health policy-makers to gain skills in understanding and applying systems thinking for policy action.Methods: In-depth interviews were conducted with 18 policy-makers who are participating in an Australian research collaboration that uses a systems approach. Our aim was to explore factors that support policy-makers to use systems approaches, and to identify any impacts of systems thinking on policy thinking or action, including the pathways through which these impacts occurred.Results: All 18 policy-makers agreed that systems thinking has merit but some questioned its practical policy utility. A small minority were confused about what systems thinking is or which approaches were being used in the collaboration. The majority were engaged with systems thinking and this group identified concrete impacts on their work. They reported using systems-focused research, ideas, tools and resources in policy work that were contributing to the development of practical methodologies for policy design, scaling up, implementation and evaluation; and to new prevention narratives. Importantly, systems thinking was helping some policy-makers to reconceptualise health problems and contexts, goals, potential policy solutions and methods. In short, they were changing how they think about preventive health. Conclusion: These results show that researchers and policy-makers can put systems thinking into action as part of a research collaboration, and that this can result in discernible impacts on policy processes. In this case, action-oriented collaboration and capacity development over a 5-year period facilitated mutual learning and practical application. This indicates that policy-makers can get substantial applied value from systems thinking when they are involved in extended co-production processes that target policy impact and are supported by responsive capacity strategies.
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Summary Competitive grant funding is a well-established mechanism for generating activity and interventions in the field of chronic disease prevention. Yet grant competitions may be burdensome for organizations, and money may not be... more
Summary Competitive grant funding is a well-established mechanism for generating activity and interventions in the field of chronic disease prevention. Yet grant competitions may be burdensome for organizations, and money may not be enough to bring about lasting change in communities. In this study, we explore the dynamics of awarding and receiving money in the context of a state-level government grant competition to support community organizations and promote community-driven action for health and well-being in Tasmania, Australia. Drawing on reflections of successful grant recipients and real-time observation of grant decision-making, we consider the role and value of grant competitions both for individual organizations and for generating broader change processes. We found that grant competitions operated according to an ‘icing-on-the-cake’ approach to funding, whereby money was provided for extra activities and new initiatives. In this way, the grant competition was valuable not ...
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Citizen science is rapidly gaining momentum as a means of involving members of the public in research and decision-making in disease prevention and health promotion. However, citizen science projects have predominantly been led by... more
Citizen science is rapidly gaining momentum as a means of involving members of the public in research and decision-making in disease prevention and health promotion. However, citizen science projects have predominantly been led by academic researchers and there is limited understanding of how to support the application of citizen science approaches in policy and practice settings. This study aimed to understand the perceptions, motivations and early experiences of applying citizen science approaches in policy and practice settings. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with policy and practice stakeholders who were leading citizen science projects (project partners, n = 7), and their implementation partners (project implementers, n = 11). Participants viewed citizen science as an opportunity to access hard-to-reach data and to enhance engagement with community members to support policy and practice change. Barriers and facilitators of citizen science in policy and practice setti...
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Health attitudes and behaviours formed during childhood greatly influence adult health patterns. This paper describes the research and development protocol for a school-based health literacy program. The program, entitled HealthLit4Kids,... more
Health attitudes and behaviours formed during childhood greatly influence adult health patterns. This paper describes the research and development protocol for a school-based health literacy program. The program, entitled HealthLit4Kids, provides teachers with the resources and supports them to explore the concept of health literacy within their school community, through classroom activities and family and community engagement. HealthLit4Kids is a sequential mixed methods design involving convenience sampling and pre and post intervention measures from multiple sources. Data sources include individual teacher health literacy knowledge, skills and experience; health literacy responsiveness of the school environment (HeLLO Tas); focus groups (parents and teachers); teacher reflections; workshop data and evaluations; and children's health literacy artefacts and descriptions. The HealthLit4Kids protocol draws explicitly on the eight Ophelia principles: outcomes focused, equity drive...
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A national arts and health policy framework being developed in 2012 proposes whole of government engagement to strengthen arts and health initiatives for community wellbeing. This framework should assist health providers at all levels to... more
A national arts and health policy framework being developed in 2012 proposes whole of government engagement to strengthen arts and health initiatives for community wellbeing. This framework should assist health providers at all levels to assess existing programs, consider new directions and identify community partners for using the arts to improve treatment and build health. Arts and health practices create arts and cultural experiences that aim to improve health and wellbeing. The number of networks, projects and organisations contributing these practices to many different healthcare and community settings is increasing. The whole range of art forms, including craft, writing, music, theatre and drama, dance, visual arts, film and new media, and multimodal combinations of these, is being used. This paper briefly outlines evidence of the effectiveness of arts and health strategies across the whole spectrum of population needs, from interventions targeting the complex needs of a few t...
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Background:There is increasing interest in using systems thinking to tackle ‘wicked’ policy problems in preventive health, but this can be challenging for policy-makers because the literature is amorphous and often highly theoretical.... more
Background:There is increasing interest in using systems thinking to tackle ‘wicked’ policy problems in preventive health, but this can be challenging for policy-makers because the literature is amorphous and often highly theoretical. Little is known about how best to support health policy-makers to gain skills in understanding and applying systems thinking for policy action.Methods:In-depth interviews were conducted with 18 policy-makers who are participating in an Australian research collaboration that uses a systems approach. Our aim was to explore factors that support policy-makers to use systems approaches, and to identify any impacts of systems thinking on policy thinking or action, including the pathways through which these impacts occurred.Results:All 18 policy-makers agreed that systems thinking has merit but some questioned its practical policy utility. A small minority were confused about what systems thinking is or which approaches were being used in the collaboration. T...
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ABSTRACT The COVID-I9 pandemic represents a massive challenge to the ordinary work of community-based organisations. We present results from a study of the actions and experiences of community-based organisations and funding agencies in... more
ABSTRACT The COVID-I9 pandemic represents a massive challenge to the ordinary work of community-based organisations. We present results from a study of the actions and experiences of community-based organisations and funding agencies in the context of a grants program for chronic disease prevention in Tasmania, Australia during 2020. Community-based organisations had just received funding to implement programs targeting smoking, obesity, nutrition and physical activity when the first lockdowns were put in place. Though the rapid changes triggered by the pandemic placed strain on organisations in certain ways, we record the adaptive practices that took place as the pandemic unfolded. We observed two levels of adaptation: 1) program-level adaptation, as new ways of reaching people and delivering planned services were devised; and 2) system-level adaptation, as funding agreements were revised and the range of organisational procedures were altered, new partnerships were formed and the span of operations were rewritten. The suspension of usual rules and activities gave permission to experiment with new roles and ‘blue sky’ ideas. Organisations who provided compelling accounts of adaptation had leaders and past history that enabled them to tap into wide networks to access resources and coordinate action. We suggest that these insights from ‘extraordinary’ times are helpful for priming or building greater adaptability and transformability in community-based prevention programs, their host organisations and their funders in ‘ordinary’ times. Drawing on the theoretical foundations of liminality theory, complexity, and viable systems theory, we consider how (better) system-level capability for chronic disease prevention is built.
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Research Interests: Sociology, Health Promotion, Social Sciences, Systems Thinking, Complexity, and 14 moreEmpowerment, Network, Practice, Resources, Critical Public Health, Men, Mobilization, Public health systems and services research, Science Technology, Interventions, Consequences, Funding models, Life Sciences & Biomedicine, and Biomedical Social Sciences
Background The mechanisms typically used to fund health promotion in communities, either as part of an effort to scale-up programs or to support the design of local activities, often pay insufficient attention to the foundational means of... more
Background The mechanisms typically used to fund health promotion in communities, either as part of an effort to scale-up programs or to support the design of local activities, often pay insufficient attention to the foundational means of enhancing well-being. Only recently have researchers begun to critically ‘unpack’ how funding processes connect with and activate local community capacities. Methods We conducted a thematic analysis of 33 interviews with policy and program administrators in public health and local community workers and volunteers. We invited them to expound on their understandings of resources - specifically, what needs to be in place to make funded programs successful and/or what do communities draw on to make funded programs effective. Results Policy and program administrators reflected mostly on the importance of traditional resources, such as adequate funding and staffing. Community-based participants often went further to describe psychological and sociologica...
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Objective. To use an action learning approach to encourage a group of executive leaders, responsible for the implementation of a state health reform agenda, to consider the leadership required to drive improvement in healthcare services.... more
Objective. To use an action learning approach to encourage a group of executive leaders, responsible for the implementation of a state health reform agenda, to consider the leadership required to drive improvement in healthcare services. Methods. Based on an assertion that knowledge is co-produced and that deliberative and structured conversation can be a mechanism to drive change, an action learning approach was used to facilitate an interagency group of executive leaders, responsible for the implementation of a state health reform agenda, who were encouraged to consider the leadership required to drive improvement in healthcare services. Results. It was difficult to assert how the group contributed specifically to the implementation of the health reform agenda but individuals gained insights and there was informal resolution of institutional tensions and differences. The method may provide new knowledge to the reform process over time. Conclusions. Getting the participants togethe...
Research Interests: Nursing, Publishing, Government, Leadership, Health, and 13 morePublic Health, Healthcare, Health Care reform, Humans, Scientific, Educational, Academic research, Commissioning, Tasmania, Public health systems and services research, Public health policy and administration, Cooperative Behavior, and Australian Health
Aim: This discussion paper aims to offer an overview and working definition of translational research, appropriate to health. Method: Using scholarly and applied literature, the paper first identifies key challenges in achieving... more
Aim: This discussion paper aims to offer an overview and working definition of translational research, appropriate to health. Method: Using scholarly and applied literature, the paper first identifies key challenges in achieving evidence-based policy and practice. It highlights international policy interest in new approaches to evidence translation and the barriers to achieving sound evidence translation. The paper offers an explicit definition of translational research and explains why it is important to have such a definition. It then elaborates on this definition by identifying and exploring seven distinctive research practices that could be associated with translational research. Findings and Conclusions: Translational research is research with a sense of place. Its hallmark is excellence in evidence for a specific context or sphere of action, whether that is health policy for the World Health Organisation or service design for a local non government organisation. If research is...
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Aim: This discussion paper aims to offer an overview and working definition of translational research, appropriate to health. Method: Using scholarly and applied literature, the paper first identifies key challenges in achieving... more
Aim: This discussion paper aims to offer an overview and working definition of translational research, appropriate to health. Method: Using scholarly and applied literature, the paper first identifies key challenges in achieving evidence-based policy and practice. It highlights international policy interest in new approaches to evidence translation and the barriers to achieving sound evidence translation. The paper offers an explicit definition of translational research and explains why it is important to have such a definition. It then elaborates on this definition by identifying and exploring seven distinctive research practices that could be associated with translational research. Findings and Conclusions: Translational research is research with a sense of place. Its hallmark is excellence in evidence for a specific context or sphere of action, whether that is health policy for the World Health Organisation or service design for a local non government organisation. If research is...