Centre for Sex and Gender Equity in Health and Medicine launch
Congratulations to James Lucas for his role in the launch of the Centre for Sex and Gender Equity in Health and Medicine – a new world-class centre aiming to tackle sex and gender inequities in health and medicine.
The Centre for Sex and Gender Equity in Health and Medicine is an initiative of The George Institute for Global Health, the UNSW Australian Human Rights Institute at UNSW Sydney and Deakin University, with support from collaborative partners, the Victorian Department of Health and the Association of Australian Medical Research Institutes (AAMRI). It will address the underlying, binary sex and gender bias in health and medicine that leads to poorer health outcomes, evidence gaps and inefficient health spending for women and girls, intersex people, trans and gender-diverse people, and in some cases men and boys.
A terrific explainer video produced by the Faculty Research Marketing team can be viewed here
GLOBE team speaks to the Australian Senate Select Committee on Supermarket Food Prices
Kathryn Backholer, Christina Zorbas, Khalid Muse and Troy Walker were invited to speak to the Australian Senate Select Committee on supermarket food prices on 13 March 2024. The senate committee was established to inquire into and report on the price setting practices and market power of major supermarkets.
Khalid Muse on his experience: “There’s not many times you see a 20 year old have an opportunity to directly speak to a range of Senators to advocate for issues that affect every day Australians. I am immensely grateful to have fantastic guidance from my team and super appreciative of their continual commitment to create space and move equity from the margins to the centre.”
Quote from Khalid’s speech:
“It is a silent battle waged daily for migrant families. Where parents find themselves forced to weigh the scale to provide their kids, nourishing and culturally appropriate meals or succumb to the financial pressures that stress them everyday”
The Senate Select Committee are due to present their final report on the 7th of May. The team looks forward to the outcome and continually supporting equitable policy advocacy work in this space.
March Highlights:
- Rebecca Collins joined the ACBRD in her capacity as Research Administrative Assistant (role previously held by Ally Stock). Rebecca will be working: Monday, Tuesday (half day), and Thursday.
- Ally Stock started as Admin Officer with the Carer Hub in March 2024. Ally brings a wealth of experience in working with research teams to assist with managing project documentation, budgets and meetings as well as office management. She has previously worked with the Australian Centre for Behavioural Research in Diabetes so came with an excellent understanding of Deakin processes. Ally is working Mondays and Tuesdays with us.
- The Carer Hub has recruited Dr Stephanie Cowdery to support the Carer Hub projects. Steph was a Senior Research and Evaluation Officer (SunSmart) at Cancer Council Victoria, completed her PhD @ IMPACT and was awarded an internship with the VCCC Alliance. She has an excellent track record in supportive care in cancer. Steph will commence on Monday 15 April, and will be a wonderful addition to the team.
- Deakin Health Economics welcomed two new staff, Bernard and Kaitlyn:
Bernard Kwadwo Yeboah Asiamah-Asare holds a joint PhD in Public Health from Curtin University, Australia, and the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, a Master of Public Health degree from the University of Ghana and a Bachelor’s degree in Herbal medicine from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana. Bernard joins the Deakin Health Economics team as Research Fellow.
Kaitlyn McKenna completed the DHE Internship program last year and graduated with a Master of Public Health. She has successfully turned her student master research project into a recent publication exploring the barriers and enablers to service access and use for children with ADHD. She is now working as a research assistant with the Deakin Health Economics team on a project exploring the cost and availability of ADHD services. Kaitlyn enjoys playing classical guitar and getting out into nature on the weekends.
Pictured in image 1: are X, Bernard Kwadwo Yeboah Asiamah-Asare and Suzanne Robinson. Image 2: Kaitlyn McKenna - Ramas McRae was awarded $5k for an IHT Partnership Event funding to hold the Deaf Mental Health Conference at Downtown on 12 April. This is an in-person and online event with international speakers presenting.
- Amie O’Shae was awarded a $55,000 Deaf Connect grant titled ‘Building Employer Capacity: Deaf and hard of hearing staff’.
Volunteering in the sunshine
On a sunny day in January, some members of the GLOBE team volunteered at Farm Raiser, an urban not-for-profit farm in Bellfield that grows food for the local community. It was a fantastic day of weeding, preparing plant beds, chatting and learning about the challenges of responsibly growing food, obtaining funding and trying to make the farm socially and environmentally responsible, while also commercially sustainable. The horticulturalists, Eve and Charlotte at Farm Raiser were so welcoming and generous with sharing their farm and experience with us. We spent a half day there, breaking for morning tea that Eve and Charlotte provided, including some fruit and veg straight from the garden. It was a great team bonding experience to get out of the office, back to where food is grown and chat along while pulling out weeds. We’d recommend others make the most of the day of volunteer leave we get and line up a team day at Farm Raiser – they’d love to welcome more Deakin staff there.
For more details, head to https://www.farmraiser.com.au/ or contact them volunteer@farmraiser.com.au
Recent Conference Presentations
- Jo Watson was a keynote speaker at the recent “International Conference on Inclusion and Integration of Persons with Disabilities across the Lifespan” held in India on 12 Feb 2024.
- Navoda Pathirana spoke at the recent Barwon Health and Deakin University Research and Grand Round held on Tuesday 26 March 2024. Navoda’s presentation was titled ‘Child rights, harmful marketing, and the future of marketing regulations’ and recognised WHO World Health Day 2024: My Health, My Right. Her research is focused on interdisciplinary approaches for data-driven policy solutions for healthy and sustainable food systems.
To view a recording of Navoda’s presentation click here: Passcode v5Cn2W#X - Kathryn Backholer presented at the Financial Counselling Victoria Inc 2024 Summit on 20 March 2024. The 2024 Summit, titled The Changing Face of Hardship, explored challenges currently being experienced by Victorians due to rising living costs. Kathryn spoke on food prices, cost of living and food insecurity affecting our most vulnerable populations. She also be reflected on the regulations governments can make, to improve the health and wellbeing of all Australians, including examples from Europe.
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Tan Nguyen joined discussions at the Croakey LIVE webinar last week on tackling oral healthcare inequities. The event was held as part of Medicare 40 Years, a Croakey initiative putting the spotlight on critical health reform issues. Read more here.
The video recording can be found here: https://youtu.be/0hGtnrBrwHc
