Understanding and defining supportive health/NDIS service environments

Summary Understanding and defining supportive health/NDIS service environments

Project Details

As young people with long term health conditions transition through adolescence and into adulthood they become more responsible for how they navigate their environments to gain access to, and to participate in, a range of important activities. One environment known to be of great importance and a significant challenge, is the navigation of health and disability service provision in the adult service provision sector.

Currently we have limited knowledge about how parents and young people with cerebral palsy in Australia work together to navigate this aspect of the young person's transition to adulthood. We know that some young adults with cerebral play will transition successfully with their usual supports, some will always need significant assistance, and we anticipate a third group who have the capacity to develop self-management skills but who struggle to do so. The goal of this program of work is to explore the impact of the health and disability service environments, the quality of the individuals' support networks on their access and use of services across settings.

This work sits within the NHMRC funded Centre for Research Excellence CP Achieve program, and aims to identify modifiable barriers for more effective health and disability services transition for young adults with cerebral palsy.

There is an opportunity for a doctoral student within this program of work. We hope to recruit a high-quality allied health, nursing, psychology or medical professional into this PhD position and experience in disability is desirable. Interested applicants should email Professor Christine Imms at christine.imms@unimelb.edu.au or Dinah Reddihough at Dinah.reddihough@rch.org.au