News and Events

CAH shines at 8th Australian and New Zealand Adolescent Health Conference

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The Centre for Adolescent Health was well represented at the 8th Australian and New Zealand Adololescent Health Conference 2011 held in Sydney from 9-11th November. There was a strong theme of indigenous health and of raising the profile of youth health within our region. Young people themselves were bothy vibrantly engaged and engaging through many different theatre and dance events within the conference together with a series
of formal presentations and feedback by young people themselves.

The Centre for Adolescent Health’s research, clinical and education programs were well represented, as were many staff and students, both current and past (see photos).

The conference program is available at www.youthhealth2011.com.au.

Presentations involving Centre for Adolescent Health staff and students (in italics):

  • Becoming an Adolescent Friendly Hospital (Susan Sawyer)
  • How complete is our picture of adolescent health? (George Patton)
  • Delivering primary health services in custodial to young people in custodial services (LynneFountain, Loretta Bellato, Dianne Garner)
  • Early interventions for young people with challenging behaviours (Monica Hadges)
  • Distance Education in Adolescent Health: Challenges and opportunities. (Andrea Krelle, Sam Van Staalduinen)
  • Workforce development in adolescent and young adult cancer care (Andrea Krelle, Sam Van Staalduinen, Kate Thompson, Lucy Holland, Lisa Orme, Susan Sawyer)
  • Consumer perspectives on adolescent friendly cancer care (Sarah Drew, Sharon DeGraves, Maria McCarthy, Tamara Bugge, Lisa Orme)
  • The Critical Friend: Things will change but not necessarily the way you expect them to! (Andrea Krelle, Helen Butler, Lea Trafford, Ian Seal)
  • Critical friends supporting change in schools (Andrea Krelle, Helen Butler)
  • Confidentiality with adolescents in the medicalsetting: What do parents think? (Rony Duncan, Maureen Jekel, Flora Pearce, Avihu Boneh, Anouk Derkes, Moya
    Vandeleur    , Michelle O’Connell, Susan Sawyer)
  • “It would have destroyed her life”. Interviews with psychologists about limits to confidentiality with adolescents (Rony Duncan, Annette Hall, Ann Knowles).
  • Program Evaluation: What’s so good about the Chronic Illness Peer Support Program? (Sarah Drew, Jessica Walton, Meagan Hunt, Loretta Bellato, Susan Sawyer)
  • Type 2 diabetes in Australian indigenous young people: A position statement on diagnosis, screening, management and prevention. Alex Brown, Paul Zimmet, R Fahy, Peter Azzopardi)
  • The health and wellbeing of Australian indigenous young people: A snapshot of current health status and programmatic approaches. (Peter Azzopardi, Robert Power, Elissa Kennedy, Rob Roseby, Susan Sawyer, George Patton, Alex Brown)
  • Adolescent fertility and family planning in East Asia and the Pacific: A review of DHS reports. (Elissa Kennedy, Natalie Gray, Peter Azzopardi, Mick Creati)
  • Jordan Hammond, youth mentor to the Youth Advisory Committee of the RCH and a past chairman of the Chronic Illness Peer Support Program, also attended as a youth representative.

Award Winning Eating Disorders Program

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Eating Disorders Program team

In recognition of outstanding results achieved by the Eating Disorders Program, the team received a highly prestigious Award at the Royal Children’s Hospital Annual Staff Awards Night held on Tuesday November 15, 2011.

In accepting the Team Award on behalf of the multidisciplinary team, Professor Sawyer, Director of the Centre for Adolescent Health, spoke of the huge toll that anorexia nervosa takes on adolescents and their families and of the team’s determination and commitment  to find new ways to address this challenging condition.

A particular challenge for the team was that the RCH experienced a 300 per cent increase in admissions of adolescents with anorexia nervosa from 2004-2008, which threatened to overwhelm the team’s capacity to respond to these complex patients. At the same time, growing research supported the role of Family-Based Treatment as first line therapy in adolescents with anorexia nervosa.

In 2009, this led the Centre for Adolescent Health to introduce Victoria’s first comprehensive, multidisciplinary Family-Based Treatment model of care for adolescents with eating disorders. The team is made up of paediatricians, mental health experts including family based therapists, nurses, dietitians, social workers, and includes those with music therapy and education expertise – as well as researchers. The team’s co-leaders are Dr Michele Yeo, adolescent physician at the Centre for Adolescent Health and Dr Andrew Court, psychiatrist, Integrated Mental Health Service.

Funded by the Baker Foundation, the team has ambitiously embarked upon standardisation of clinical care practices in order to drive consistency of care and improve clinical outcomes. These efforts have also underpinned the team’s development of an integrated clinical research agenda, including a large randomised controlled trial that is comparing two different forms of Family-Based Treatment.

To date, the team’s achievements include:

We offer clinical care consistent with world’s best practice and have greatly improved our clinical outcomes for adolescents with eating disorders.

  • We have significantly reduced the number of hospital admissions with anorexia nervosa. Prior to implementing Family-Based treatment, our admissions peaked at 130 per year.  By 2010, the team had reduced this to only 50 per year with a much more satisfied and less stressed staff.  
  • We have developed a new research agenda in adolescent eating disorders.

In accepting the award, Professor Sawyer spoke of the challenges of implementing Family-Based Treatment, as every member of the treating team’s role changed as a result of the new model of care.

“We could never have achieved such outstanding clinical outcomes without the commitment to improving the quality of our care that was demonstrated by every member of this team. I feel extraordinarily proud of what has been achieved”. 

The RCH Eating Disorders Program is now nationally recognised as a leading eating disorders service. This is because of the strength of the multidisciplinary team that is a vibrant collaboration between the Centre for Adolescent Health and the RCH Mental Health service, strongly supported by the adolescent inpatient unit and RCH Nutrition and Food Services.

Our Adolescent Medicine Manager, John Vernon said:

“The Awards event was uplifting for me and others because people were being recognized for human values as much as the actual professional work they did.

For our own award for the Eating Disorders Program, the team in this instance was a bunch of clinicians from 4 different departments, including the adolescent in-patient ward, focused on a particular need, making the work better and making the patients better”.

The Centre for Adolescent Health and the staff of our multidisciplinary Eating Disorders Program are very proud to have received such recognition from the Royal Children’s Hospital. The Program was also highlighted in the 2011 RCH Quality of Care Report.

Congratulations to the Team!

 

CAH Professors address 3rd World Health Summit

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World Health Summit
Professor Susan Sawyer, Director, Centre for Adolescent Health and Professor George Patton, Director of Research, Centre for Adolescent Health, were recent participants in the 3rd World Health Summit in Berlin in October in a major symposium on adolescent health. Interest in the adolescent and young adult years reflects dynamic changes in the burden of
disease in both younger children and older adults. At one end of the life-course, dramatic improvements in child health have led to growing interest in the  second decade of life – with an appreciation that new investments are needed in adolescence to cement earlier health gains. At the other end of the life-course, the growing burden of non-communicable diseases from behaviours that start in adolescence provides a very different rationale for promoting healthy adolescent development.

The World Health Summit has created an international high-level forum for thought leaders, innovators and change agents in public health policy and life sciences. Attended by governmental representatives, policy makers, non-governmental organisations, social institutions and health-related industries, it aims to initiate cross-sectoral solutions in
response to the complex challenges faced by our increasingly globalised societies.

The symposium on adolescent health was convened by the Centre for Adolescent Health through the University of Melbourne, together with UNICEF and The Lancet. The aim was to consider the scope for translating new understandings of adolescent health into global action. Chaired by Professor Susan Sawyer and Sabine Kleinert, Senior Executive Editor, The Lancet, the four speakers addressed important steps that included the establishment of adequate information systems, the development of structures for governance and
coordination of efforts, and examples of what programs are possible in this emerging field.

Defining the Problems: Development of Data Systems for
Adolescent Health George Patton | Professor of Adolescent Health Research |
University of Melbourne | Australia
Growing Global Systems to Respond to Adolescent Health Needs Miriam Temin | Consultant | Population Council and UNICEF |
United States
Growing Capacity in Adolescent Health in LMIC: The Experience in Sub-Saharan Africa Caroline Kabiru | Research Scientist | African Population and  Health, Research Centre | Kenya
The Potential for Joined-up Approaches in Adolescent Health Mickey Chopra | Chief of Health and Associate Director of
Programmes | UNICEF | United States

Exploring the Experiences of Adolescents with Cardiac Conditions

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Dr Rony Duncan is a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Adolescent
Health, Murdoch Childrens Research Institute and, as part of this role, she supervises a number of postgraduate research students. Recently, one of her past students, Belinda Rahman, worked with Rony to publish the findings from her Masters research in a well-known cardiac journal – Pacing and Clinical Electrophysiology (PACE).

The study was about adolescents who have Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillators (ICDs), which are devices used to treat life-threatening cardiac conditions. ICDs are surgically inserted near the heart to monitor the heart’s rhythm. If abnormal rhythms are detected, the device delivers a ‘shock’ to restore normal rhythm. ICDs significantly extend life expectancy but the psychosocial implications for people who have ICDs are not well understood. And, of the few studies that have been explored psychosocial impacts, most have been with adults, not young people.

The study published in PACE involved a series of interviews with adolescents who had ICDs (and also with their parents) to find out about the way in which having an ICD impacts on life. Some important themes emerged from this work, including the range of restrictions that adolescents with ICDs face, the fears associated with experiencing an ICD ‘shock’, and the way in which communication with health professionals could be improved so that it is more adolescent-friendly.

The paper is currently available online, ahead of print.

Rahman 2011 PACE article

 

A ground breaking program to assist students who have dyslexia

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Dr Barry Jones launches Success and Dyslexia: sessions for coping in the upper primary years

A ground breaking program to assist students who have dyslexia entitled Success and Dyslexia: sessions for coping in the upper primary years was launched on Oct 20. Dr Barry Jones, currently Professorial Fellow at The University of Melbourne Graduate School of Education, and Dr. Daryl Greaves, learning disabilities specialist, spoke at the launch which was held at SPELD Victoria. Dr. Firth, a senior researcher at the Centre for Adolescent Health and leading author of the program has undertaken extensive research in the area of coping with learning disabilities. This unique, evidence-based program draws on her research and on the coping research of co author Associate Professor Erica Frydenberg. The program assists all upper primary students, but especially those with dyslexia, to increase their ability to take control of and cope well with the problems that occur in their lives. Because dyslexia is often highly resistant to improvement despite dedicated literacy and numeracy teaching interventions, this groundbreaking resource focuses instead on adaptive coping skills that are known to be more powerful predictors of life success than extent of dyslexia. All components of the program use best practice process for students who have dyslexia, including: explicit strategy instruction, print free activities, and relevance to students’ personal lives, and opportunity for revision.

The program is published by the Australian Council of Educational Research (ACER). See https://shop.acer.edu.au/acer-shop/product/A5216BK

Article published in The Age on October 17, 2011.

Article published in The Age on October 31, 2011.

Dr Nola Firth’s interview with Richard Aedy, ABC Radio National Life Matters presenter was broadcast on Monday October 24, 2011. Listen here

More Book Launch photos

 

 

Deb Lee, Managing Editor of ACER
 

Dr Nola Firth, Author

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Dr Daryl Greaves, learning disabilities specialist

 

Dr Erica Frydenberg, Author

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Dr Barry Jones, Professorial Fellow, The University of Melbourne, Graduate School of Education

Inspiration turns into a successful fund raising event for vulnerable young people

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Inspired by a recent talk on vulnerable young people by Professor Susan Sawyer, the Centre for Adolescent Health was delighted to be the recipient of a highly successful fund raising that was hosted by Karl Kutner from Central Equity on October 3, 2011 at Crown, attended by around 100 people.

The event was MC’d by Luke Ryan who has turned his experiences of cancer as an adolescent and young man into a comedy festival show (Luke’s Got Cancer) which saw us laughing out loud at cancer jokes…

Professor Susan Sawyer, Director of the Centre for Adolescent Health, then spoke of the Centre’s clinical work with vulnerable young people with the goal of highlighting the complex interplay between social disadvantage and risk behaviours. She graphically described the devastating impact that this can have on young people’s current health and future life chances.

Professor Sawyer’s words were echoed by Brittani, a young woman who gave a highly compelling account of her downward spiral into drugs and crime, and an equally warm and engaging account of her steps towards recovery, supported by the Adolescent Forensic Health Service, a program of the Centre for Adolescent Health.

It was then down to the business of raising money. With hammer in hand, auctioneer Rodney Morley, Managing Director, Woodards, drew on a highly receptive audience to successfully auction 14 generously donated items.

Thanks to Karl Kutner and the sponsors of the event, a substantial sum was raised in support of the Centre’s work with socially marginalized and homeless young people.

Chairman of the Centre’s Development Board, Miriam Weisz, concluded the evening by presenting Karl with a certificate of appreciation and the announcement that he had accepted an offer from the Board of becoming an Ambassador for the Centre for Adolescent Health.

 

                                                                                                                 Karl and Amanda Kutner

Eating disorders in adolescents highlighted in new paper

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Stephanie Campbell, clinical nurse consultant for eating disorders at the Centre for Adolescent Health, has authored a recent article about eating disorders in adolescents for the Australian Practice Nurses Association (APNA) journal ‘Primary Times’. The Centre for Adolescent Health runs a large eating disorder program for adolescents; see Eating disorders program, and is also actively engaged in clinical research. Stephanie is the nurse coordinator of the RCH Eating Disorder program, together with Renae Wall. Stephanie and Renae work across inpatient and outpatient services, supporting and educating staff, patients and families. They are responsible for the intake of all new referrals and the coordination of the multidisciplinary eating disorder assessment clinic. Stephanie’s expertise around what nurses need to know about eating disorders is highlighted in this paper.

Primary Times SEP11 – Understanding eating disorders in adolescents – Stephanie Campbell

Lapbanding option for obese adolescents raises many issues

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The Centre for Adolescent Health was involved in the first randomised controlled trial of ‘lapbanding’  in severely obese adolescents that was undertaken because of the failure of current treatment approaches in the most severely affected by obesity. This trial was funded by the Australian NHMRC and published last year in the highly prestigious Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

Read the article by Prof Susan Saywer in the JAMA: Too big to swallow

Read the JAMA editorial by E Livingston MD : Surgical Treatment of Obesity in Adolescents. Feb 10 2010

Professor Sawyer, Director of the Centre for Adolescent Health, one of the chief investigators in the trial, has now published a reflective article in the Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health based on her experiences running this trial, which compared laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding to an intensive behaviourally-based intervention in adolescents with severe obesity. During this trial, a number of moral and ethical concerns were articulated by various Australian colleagues. In the article, Professor Sawyer groups these concerns into five responses (‘preventers’, ‘druggies’, ‘deferrers’, ‘slippery slopers’ and ‘simplifiers’). She suggests that while these raise important issues, such responses also deflect attention from the urgent need to develop and test new treatments for the most severely obese adolescents, a field that she argues continues to be hampered by the stigma of obesity.

Another successful Adolescent Health Rural Women’s Linkage Program

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Once again, eight women from communities as remote as Swifts Creek inGippsland and Speed in the Mallee, came together for a residential professionaldevelopment program at the Centre for Adolescent Health last week. The Adolescent Health Rural Women’s Linkage Program was, for the 6th consecutive, a huge success. Thank you to all the staff at the Centre for Adolescent Health who contributed to the program and our partners at the Melbourne Sexual Health Clinic, Adolescent Forensic Health Services and FrontYard.  This program has been made possible by the generous support of the Invergowrie Foundation, dedicated to supporting women’s and girl’s education and leadership.

Separation anxiety? Stop blaming one-parent families for all of society’s ills

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The mental health and well-being of Australian children is deteriorating and this is caused by a breakdown of two parent families, according to a report released today by University of Sydney Law Professor Patrick Parkinson.

The For Kids’ Sake report was commissioned by the Australian Christian Lobby and draws on previously published data. So what should we make of it?

Professor George Patton, Group Head of Population Health Studies of Adolescents at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, explains that the situation is a lot more complicated.

Go to The Conversation web link for more information to find out why.