Associate Professor Deborah Debono

Access to good health and social care is fundamental to better health outcomes which are necessary to support our communities to thrive, economically, socially and culturally. My program of research transcends disciplinary boundaries to implement real world solutions to complex problems to improve the delivery and experience of health and social care services. I provide expertise and leadership, on implementation science, service integration, evaluation, co-design and qualitative methods, pivotal to translating research in the real world. Working with consumers and colleagues from Health, Law, Education, Built Environment, Business, Engineering, and Industry, I contribute to connected research at state, national, and international levels to improve evidence-based care and outcomes in, patient safety and service delivery particularly for populations with complex needs.  My research seeks to foreground the voices of people who are often not heard to improve their health and social outcomes. To illustrate, I am leading an externally funded project to Co-design an Evaluation Framework with people with intellectual disability, their parents and service providers at Onemda, a service provider for people with intellectual disability in Melbourne. I am also co-leading with Dr Kirsty Young from FASS, a project funded by the Limb Family Foundation, to improve employment outcomes for students with intellectual disability.