Jean Hailes Research Unit publishes Tweddle Day Stay Research project outcomes
A recent Monash University Jean Hailes Research Unit study into the Tweddle Day Stay Program printed in the International Journal of Mental Health Systems examined the health, social circumstances and presenting needs of 115 clients attending the Tweddle Day stay Program. The study looked at parents with infants under 12 months old and assessed the parent mental health and infant behaviour outcomes and factors associated with program success. Results revealed that Day Stay participants’ mental health and their infants’ behaviours were significantly improved after their admission.
Tweddle’s Day Stay program appeared to respond effectively to the needs of families presenting with substantial physical and emotional health issues and a range of vulnerabilities by treating parental mental health and infant behaviour problems together. The study, conducted by Heather Rowe, Sonia Mccallum, Minh Thi H Le and Renzo Vittorino concluded that the Day Stay Program offered important benefits for the prevention of more serious family problems and consequent health care cost savings.
Recent Victorian State Government policy and legislative changes are intended to promote earlier intervention for vulnerable families and children. Tweddle’s Day Stay programs, which operate across 5 western locations across Victoria, have a focus on infant health and development and the promotion of parent-infant emotional attachment. “Parents come in for help with infant unsettled behaviour and feeding problems and can then get support for depression, anxiety and fatigue’ said Tweddle CEO Vivienne Amery “The service provides important early intervention and links families back to support services in their communities. The study can be found here
Research program
Tweddle Child + Family Health Service has been providing evidence based, clinical interventions for many years and recognizes the importance of developing evidence based interventions to enhance the wellbeing of children and their parents.
Since its inception, Tweddle has a history of evaluation and continuous improvement in service delivery. Its commitment to quality and research has been clearly exhibited by actively participating in research projects and engaging external consultants to review its practices and approaches to service delivery.
The research program is strongly committed to the development of comprehensive research activities to support evidence based models of service delivery. Tweddle created a formal research program in July 2007 which has been operating from its Footscray site.
The Research program staff work with all services in Tweddle, the general community and with governments, non government bodies, universities and other stakeholders to achieve its primary aim.
The Research Program at TCFHS is dedicated to enhancing the wellbeing of children aged between 0-4 years and their families. We are committed to supporting staff and higher degree students involved in research activities by creating research opportunities from questions raised from service/practice delivery, advances in the field of child and family field and government policies.
The research programs undertaken by Tweddle will meet Federal and State legislation, research methodology standards, DHS and university ethic guidelines as well as organisation policies and procedures.
Legal and ethical requirements
Relevant reading
- Commonwealth Privacy Act
- Victorian Health Records Act (HRA)
- Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC)
- Relevant University Research Ethics Committees
- Victorian Department of Human Services. Human Research Ethics Committee
- National Health and Medical Research Council National Statement (NHMRC)
- Health Services Commissioner's Statutory Guidelines on Research
- Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research Value and Ethics: guidelines for ethical conduct in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Research
- When does quality assurance in health care require independent ethical review?
Tweddle research policy and procedure + research projects
Completed research projects
The Early Parenting Study (Key Centre for Women's Health and Society, University Of Melbourne).
Current research projects
The Wellbeing of Father (with PRC)
http://www.parentingrc.org.au/index.php/creating-knowledge/parent-wellbeing/the-wellbeing-of-fathers
Coping With Fatigue (with PRC)
http://www.parentingrc.org.au/index.php/creating-knowledge/parent-wellbeing/coping-with-fatigue
Tweddle and Higher Education Degrees
Tweddle accepts higher education students (PhD, Professional Doctorate and Master) to conduct their research project in different services/areas provided by Tweddle. Generally, students will conduct research in the areas of community, family and child however, other areas of research may be considered.
Students who are interested in conducting research at Tweddle should contact the Research Coordinator via e-mail research@tweddle.org.au
Links