New Research

Care and support of male survivors of conflict-related sexual violence

02 February 2012Sexual violence against men and boys is a pervasive feature of armed conflicts. This paper provides commentary, recent data, and promising programming and therapeutic approaches in the care and support of male survivors.

Improving Indigenous community governance

02 February 2012Strengthening the organisational capacity of both Indigenous and government organisations is critical to raising the health, wellbeing and prosperity of Indigenous Australian communities.

The experience of education: The impacts of high stakes testing on school students and their families

30 January 2012This literature review was commissioned to provide context for the research project The Experience of Education: The impacts of high stakes testing on school students and their families.

The role of informal community resources in supporting independent housing for young people recovering from mental illness

30 January 2012This project looks at the housing issues facing young independant people with mental illness.

National strategies to address dementia

09 January 2012By by 2050 the number of people predicted to be living with dementia worldwide will be over 100 million. This paper provides an overview of a range of approaches that a selection of countries have taken to address dementia.

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Ageing

State Trustees Limited: management of represented persons

08 February 2012This audit found that State Trustees is not able to clearly demonstrate that it is fulfilling its obligations to represented persons.

Service costs in modern residential aged care facilities

31 January 2012This paper presents the results of a national study of the cost of delivering residential aged care services in modern and efficient facilities.

2010-11 report on the operation of the Aged Care Act 1997

23 January 2012Recent reviews of the Aged Care Act of 1997 have led to increases in government funding in particular, aged care facilites and the services they provide to indigenous communities.

Mental health

Commentary

Unwanted pregnancies, unsafe abortions

02 February 2012A recent study in the Lancet by the Guttmacher Institute and the W.H.O shows that overall abortion rates have stalled, writes Mina Barling for the Drum.

Can nations measure well-being?

09 December 2011The attempt to measure quality of life over time and between places is still in its infancy, writes Peter Shergold for the Centre for Social Impact.

"It’s like when a patriarch dies, and the will is read..."

30 November 2011Mental health had a big win in this year’s budget – and that’s when the fights began, writes Melissa Sweet in Inside Story

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Topic Guides

A guide to understanding and working with General Practice in NSW

20 May 2011Providing an outline of general practice, this resource considers its uniformity and diversity; its funding arrangements, service delivery, workforce, training, capacity and supporting structures.

Guideline on the application of the premises standards - 2011

  • Australian Human Rights Commission

04 April 2011This guide has been issued to help designers, architects, builders and clients to better understand the Disability (Access to Premises - buildings) Standards 2010  which will commence on 1 May 2011.

Arts for all: opening doors to people with a disability

15 February 2010This guide provides practical and long-term ways for artists and arts organisations to enhance their access, market their events to the disabled community and build new audiences.

Audio

The national disability insurance scheme

Listen to audio
12 September 2011The federal Government recently announced that it will go ahead with a National Disability Insurance Scheme. But what will this scheme really mean for people with disability and their carers throughout Australia?

The caretakers

Listen to audio
08 August 2011With an elderly population boom on the horizon, aged care in Australia is under urgent review. But what does "aged care" actually involve - and why isn't it more widely discussed in the community?

Health policy

Diabetes indicators in Australia

01 February 2012Diabetes has increased significantly among the Australian population over the past 20 years, however the rate of diabetes-related deaths is falling, according to a report released today by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW).

Healthy lifestyle programs for physical activity and nutrition

01 February 2012Over half (51%) of Indigenous people living in non-remote parts of Australia aged 15 and over do very little or no exercise, compared with 33% of non-Indigenous Australians (AIHW 2011a).

Health; Community services; Housing and homelessness

30 January 2012This report  provides an overview of the health sector, presenting both contextual information and high level performance information.

Video

How the internet is rewiring our brains

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04 October 2010Distraction, skim-reading and instant information - all hallmarks of the new technology - have real potential to reduce our capacity for deep concentration and deep reading.

Alcohol and culture change: Current challenges and conundrums

Listen to audio
16 October 2009Anne Roche, Director, National Centre for Education and Training on Addiction, Flinders University speaks about evidenced based culture change versus intuition and commonsense in the campaign to fight alcohol based social problems.

Disability

Work-related injuries in Australia: Who did and didn't receive workers' compensation in 2009-10

09 January 2012Analysing the results of the Australian Bureau of Statistics Work-related Injuries Survey, this report finds that of the 567 500 employees injured while working in 2009-10, only 38 per cent of them received workers' compensation.

Websites

Social exclusion monitor

09 September 2011 More than one million Australians experience deep social exclusion according to the social exclusion monitor, a new approach to measuring social exclusion in Australia. 

Specialist Homelessness Services collection

04 July 2011Focusing on people's experiences of homelessness, a new collection to assist in measuring homelessness in Australia has been launched by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.

AFRC Bibliography Collection

12 May 2011The Australian Family Relationships Clearinghouse now provides real-time searches for bibliographies on a range of topics related to family, family relationships and issues that affect Australian families.

Most viewed: This week

1
The experience of education: The impacts of high stakes testing on school students and their families
2
Juvenile detention population in Australia 2011
3
Can nations measure well-being?
4
Australian Policy Online top reports for Health 2011
5
Gender indicators, Australia, Jan 2012

Books

A Decent Provision: Australian Welfare Policy, 1870 to 1949

A Decent Provision: Australian Welfare Policy, 1870 to 1949

  • John Murphy
  • Ashgate
A Decent Provision is a narrative history of how and why Australia built a distinctive welfare regime in the period from the 1870s to 1949.
Leadership Beyond Good Intentions - What It Takes To Really Make A Difference

Leadership Beyond Good Intentions - What It Takes To Really Make A Difference

  • Geoff Aigner
  • Allen & Unwin
Good intentions are not enough. You want to change things in your organisation or in the world, but despite your best efforts you run into obstacles and resistance. The temptation is to see the challenges as lying outside ourselves. We grasp at a model or a tool, or we find other people slow to get the point or worse - obstructive. But the real challenge we face is often ourselves.

Noticeboard

Topic Guides

A guide to understanding and working with General Practice in NSW

20 May 2011Providing an outline of general practice, this resource considers its uniformity and diversity; its funding arrangements, service delivery, workforce, training, capacity and supporting structures.

Topics

APO