A qualitative study of the general practice experience of diagnosing and managing long COVID: Challenges and practical recommendations.

Background And Objectives: Patients with prolonged symptoms following COVID-19 infection(s) will increasingly present to general practice. Our research objective was to understand the general practice experience of diagnosing and managing long COVID and to explore recommendations for contributing to the safety and quality of the long COVID response.

Method: A two-hour qualitative session involving 11 project stakeholders was held in March 2023.

The emergence of integrated approaches to worker health, safety and wellbeing in Australia.

Integrated approaches to worker health, safety and wellbeing have been progressively developed and implemented internationally for over a decade; however, implementation in the Australian context is still in the early stages. Integrated workplace interventions recognise the interaction between health protection and health promotion to create a workplace culture in which health, safety and wellbeing are valued and managed efficiently, together with a view to improve organisational productivity. The present paper describes the progress of integrated approaches in six Victorian workplaces considered early adopters and identifies the drivers for further policy and program development in this area.

Compassion Fatigue among Healthcare, Emergency and Community Service Workers: A Systematic Review.

Compassion fatigue (CF) is stress resulting from exposure to a traumatized individual. CF has been described as the convergence of secondary traumatic stress (STS) and cumulative burnout (BO), a state of physical and mental exhaustion caused by a depleted ability to cope with one's everyday environment. Professionals regularly exposed to the traumatic experiences of the people they service, such as healthcare, emergency and community service workers, are particularly susceptible to developing CF.

A scoping review of end user involvement in disability research.

Background: Involving clients and consumers of health care in research, policy and health service development has been widely advocated for across a number of different fields and disciplines. Despite some promising evidence, 'end users' have not been meaningfully involved in all stages of the research process in the area of disability research.

Objective: To conduct a scoping review on end user involvement in disability research, service and policy development.

Empowering vulnerable parents through a family mentoring program.

Evidence suggests that mentoring programs can foster positive relationships through role modelling, social support and opportunities to develop new skills. Home visiting programs, where a health professional or volunteer provides parenting support and companionship to at-risk families, have received attention from the health and welfare sector. These programs tend to focus on new mothers and immediate parenting concerns, and do not address broader social determinants of health that impact on the well being and functionality of the family.

Exploring the partnership networks of churches and church-affiliated organisations in health promotion.

Health promotion professionals often work with community organisations and voluntary associations, including churches and church-affiliated organisations, to reduce health inequities within communities. How voluntary and church-affiliated organisations form intersectoral relationships and partnerships, and the challenges they face in doing so, has been well researched. However, there is a need to investigate further the extent to which local churches collaborate or form partnerships with other actors, such as government, peak bodies and welfare organisations.

Partnership tools for health promotion: are they worth the effort?

In health promotion and community sector programs, working through partnerships has become a key strategy for capacity building and infrastructure development that is intended to achieve better health outcomes. Government and funding agencies are providing significant support for partnership work in the apparent belief that partnerships are more likely to improve sustainability of programs and their outcomes than single agencies working alone. Online partnership analysis tools are designed for organisations to measure the effectiveness of their collaborative endeavours, and to demonstrate to funding bodies that the partnership was worthwhile.

Workforce development to embed mental health promotion research and evaluation into organisational practice.

Issues Addressed: This project engaged a mental health rehabilitation organisation in health promotion research and development to build its capacity in evaluation research.

Methods: Participatory research methods were used. Staff skills development occurred through training in research and evaluation methods applied to an evaluation project in mental health promotion that they conducted.