School of Clinical Medicine Behavioural Sciences Unit

Research

Personalise
Close-up of a therapist gesticulating while talking to a group of listing teenagers during an educational self-acceptance and motivation meeting.

One in eight Australian children have a serious or chronic health condition, needing hospitalisation or long-term healthcare.

Chronic and/or serious disease in children can have long lasting impacts, not only on the patient but also on the family unit.

​It is our mandate to lead research which enables health professionals and the hospital system to better support children and their families from the diagnosis of a serious or chronic condition through to survivorship or bereavement.

Research teams
Mental Health and Relationships (MHR)

In the Mental Health and Relationship team, we acknowlede that child chronic illness has a profound effect on each family member individually, as well as the family unit as a whole.

Precision Medicine and Genomics (PMG)

The ethics and genetics team is investigating the psychological impact of genetic testing in childhood and working towards the ethical implementation of new technologies and experimental therapies into the cancer clinic.

Health Systems and Survivorship (HSS)

Our health behaviours team focuses on researching ways to minimise the ongoing burden of treatment for childhood cancer through health, nutrition and lifestyle interventions, and the development and evaluation of models of care which address the barriers to receiving optimal cancer-related follow up care.

Patient Reported Outcomes and Quality of Life (ProQoL)

Our patient education and cognition team aims to improve the educational and social trajectories of young people affected by cancer through research and translation of knowledge into supportive resources.