Disease Prevention and Health Promotion
The unit includes Grant Blashki, Alex Devine, Michelle Kermode, Martha Morrow, Nick Crofts, Tim Moore, Brigitte Tenni, David Stephens, Kit Chan, Tilman Ruff, Rosemary Mhlanga-Gunda, Barbara Mouy, Anjali Singh, Yolanda Mansfied and Casandra Hewett. The unit is led by Rob Moodie.
Our major areas of work include HIV prevention among drug users; drug policy and law enforcement; drugs, health and development; HIV prevention among sex workers; mental health promotion; tobacco control and prevention; and health promotion.
Projects
HIV prevention among sex workers
- HIV prevention among sex workers: UN training module development on HIV and sex work funded by UNFPA.
Tobacco Control
- Support to the establishment of The Australia and New Zealand Support Network for Regional Tobacco Control project
- Support to the South East Asian Tobacco Control Alliance (SEATCA)
HIV among injecting drug users
- Gender Advisor, HIV/AIDS Regional Program, funded by AusAID (Vietnam, China, Burma, Cambodia, Laos and the Philippines)
Research activities
HIV prevention
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Mental health promotion for vulnerable women as a strategy for reducing HIV risk behaviours in north-east India (funded by DFID)
- HIV risks and points of intervention for China’s internal migrants (NHMRC post doctoral fellowship)
- HIV risk among rural to urban migrant workers in Chengdu
- Disability friendly HIV prevention programs
HIV and injecting drug use:
- The Impact of Harm Reduction Programs on law enforcement (4 year AusAID funded Australian Development Research Awards)
- Initiation into IDU in north-east India (funded by DFID)
HIV and reproductive health:
- Development and evaluation of a school-based adolescent health education program in Haryana, India (with MAMTA Health Institute)
HIV and sex work
- Pathways to sex work in Nagaland, India (funded by Project ORCHID)
HIV treatments
- ARV compliance in Zimbabwe
Mental health promotion
- Mental health literacy in rural Maharashtra, India (funded by University of Melbourne)
- Mental health of widows in NE India
- Primary health care and mental health promotion in rural Maharashtra, India (funded by Australia-India Council)
- Mental health, gender and participation in South India
Tobacco Control
- Smoke free homes in Vietnam
- Gender and tobacco control
- Corporate social responsibility and tobacco control
Education/ Teaching
Three new subjects are being conducted for the MPH by the unit this year
- Global Health Research
- HIV: an Evolving Global Response
- Public Health Leadership
- Research Methodology (NE India)
- Adolescent health in India
- Primary Health care course in Jamkhed, India
Others include:
- Health Promotion module in the Masters of Public Health Course Eduardo Mondlane University, Mozambique
- Lecture: "Uranium, Medical Radioisotopes and Nuclear Weapons",Philadelphia Physicians for Social Responsibility and Masters of Public Health Program – Thomas Jefferson University, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, 6 June 2008
- Co-Chair, Model negotiations on a Nuclear Weapons Convention, 3 May 2008 , Geneva, accredited program with 36 students from Technische Hochschule Darmstadt and University of Hamburg
- AMS students on qualitative research methods (four day course).
- Development of University breadth subject “Global Health, Security and Sustainability”
Knowledge Transfer
The work of the members of the unit includes projects, consultancies and representation in the following areas:
HIV
- Evaluation of DFID funding of HIV initiatives in Cambodia
- Member, Asia Pacific Drug Issues Committee of the Australian National Council on Drugs
- Deputy Chair, the International Harm Reduction Association
- Member, Board of the Youth Substance Abuse Service
- Consultant to the Global Implementation Support team (GIST). Led this on behalf of its 13 members (Global Fund, World Bank, UNAIDS, USG, WHO, UNICEF etc) and observers (AusAID)
- Member, UN Commission on AIDS in the Pacific
- Chair, Technical Advisory Panel Avahan
- Member, Asia Pacific Leadership Forum on HIV/AIDS, Steering Committee
- Chair, Program Coordination Committee, HIV Consortium for Capacity Building in Asia and the Pacific
- Participation in the Second Meeting of the UN Regional Partnership Forum on HIV and Sex Work in Asia and the Pacific (Bangkok)
- Project ORCHID dissemination meeting in Nagaland, India to feedback findings from the pathways to sex work study
- Gender Advisor, AusAID HIV/AIDS Asia Regional Program
- Member, Asia Pacific Drug Issues Committee of the Australian National Council on Drugs
Mental health
- Co Chair, Scientific Committee 5th World Conference on the Promotion of Mental Health and the Prevention of Mental and Behavioural Disorders, Sept 2008
Health promotion/prevention
- Provision of technical support to Health Promotion Foundations
- Chair of the Audit Expert Group of Melbourne 2030
- Facilitation of the Annual Oxford Health Alliance Summit February 2008.
- Development of privately funded project grant for twinning between Eduardo Mondlane University, Maputo and Nossal Institute/UoM .
- Member, Board of the Australian Research Alliance for Children and Youth (ARACY)
Immunisation Program and Policy Support
- Temporary WHO Advisor, WHO/UNICEF Pacific Immunisation Program Strengthening Workshop, Rarotonga, 12-16 May 2008
- Advisory board meetings 'Addressing meningococcal disease in the Middle East and Africa' and 'Infant vaccination schedules: Options for improving implementation’ Novartis Vaccines, 19 June 2008, Kuala Lumpur
- Chair of Australian Advisory Board, 10 valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine, GlaxoSmithKline Australia
Nuclear Weapons Abolition Initiative
- One of 2 civil society representatives on Australian government delegation to the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty Preparatory Committee in Geneva 28 April – 9 May 2008 (first such representation on an Australian NPT delegation. A number of proposals were included in Australian statements)
- Keynote speaker, Workshop on Eliminating HEU from Medical Isotope Production and Other Civilian Uses hosted by Physicians for Social Responsibility and The James Martin Center for Non-proliferation Studies, Washington DC, 5 June 2008
- Chair, Australian Management Committee, International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN)
- Chair, ICAN Working Group, International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War
- Member, Board of Directors, International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War
Maternal and child health
- Sub-contracted by World Vision Australia to prepare background document and case studies on effective approaches in maternal, neonatal and child health for advocacy
Health promotion/prevention
- Chair, National Preventative Health Taskforce
- Member, Board of the Australian Research Alliance for Children and Youth (ARACY)