CHE - COVID-19 Research News

In order to reduce the transmission of COVID-19, health care institutions around the world have implemented visitor restriction policies. As with other public health policy responses to COVID-19, these policies prioritise maximising health outcomes for the entire community over individual patient and family needs.

Justice Health Unit convenes webinar series on Building a sustainable, comprehensive response to COVID-19 in relation to detention.

The pandemic response would be more effective if the diversity of public health expertise was more widely recognised and incorporated, according to Associate Professor Louise Keogh, a health sociologist at the Centre for Health Equity, in the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health at the University of Melbourne.

There is a crisis within crisis accommodation. Homelessness providers struggle to meet women’s requests for accommodation under usual circumstances. During COVID-19 lockdowns the dramatic increase in domestic abuse has put an already stretched system under greater pressure.

Calling all international students currently renting in inner-city Melbourne.  We invite you to complete a survey that asks questions about the quality of your housing experience in Melbourne and how COVID-19 has impacted this experience. The researchers hope that this survey will help to identify critical housing and health issues relevant to international students. The survey will take approximately 30 minutes to complete. Please feel free to share the link across your networks. Thank you!

Important findings for governments, services, people with disability and their support workers on preventing COVID-19 transmission in the disability community.

Podcast featuring Professor Bec Bentley

Melbourne is once again grappling with increasing COVID-19 rates. Ten suburbs in Melbourne have been designated COVID-19 outbreak hotspots: Broadmeadows, Keilor Downs, Maidstone, Albanvale, Sunshine West, Hallam, Brunswick West, Fawkner, Reservoir and Pakenham. The outbreaks have sparked discussions about lockdowns and travel restrictions for people living in these parts of Melbourne and generated intensive suburb-specific testing. The outbreaks have been attributed to family gatherings in homes and people failing to self-isolate, even after positive test results. This has occurred alongside possible breaches of infection control protocols in hotels accommodating people in quarantine – with security guards from major hotels having contracted the virus.

Dr Tania King writes that COVID-19 is an opportunity to advance gender equality and its many health benefits.

A new survey is looking to understand the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on younger kids – and why it’s important not to assume that they will simply bounce back

Greater accountability of the health and disability service sectors needed during COVID-19.

Australia needs a National Housing Strategy, as well as consistent funding and policy mechanisms, to reverse our long-term declines in social housing

Dr Rosalind McDougall, Prof Lynn Gillam, Dr Danielle Ko, Ms Isabella Holmes, Prof Clare Delanyrmcdo@unimelb.edu.au

Comment and opinion piece by Olena Hankivsky (CHE, GWHU) and Anuj Kapilashrami (Queen Mary University)

The discussants areProf Per Axelsson of Umea University Sweden, who has worked on polio in Sweden and on Sami health and history.Prof Linda Bryder, who has written on TB in the UK, the Spanish Flu in New Zealand and in the PacificProf Janet McCalman who taught the interdisciplinary subject ‘An Ecological History of Humanity’ for sixteen years and works on historical population health.The host is Emma Dawson, director of Per Capita

The following article from The Guardian, 18th May, is based on a project, SERADA, looking at sexual and gender based violence against refugees.  The work on this project is being led by the University of Birmingham in collaboration with Uppsala University, Bilkent University and University of Melbourne/Gender and Women's Health Unit.

COVID-19 is a chance to address the existing problems for young workers as youth unemployment is set to peak.

If so, we'd love to hear about your experience during COVID-19.

CovidCampus Project:Student experiences during the COVID-19 Outbreak: Understanding student perceptions of inclusion at the University of Melbourne

Congratulations to Emma Stanford (Indigenous Eye Health Unit, CHE) and her Trachoma Team on their great work in building on the trachoma health promotion messages to include COVID-19 hygiene – “Of course you can wash your hands without washing your face, but you cannot wash your face without washing your hands”.  The new package includes videos, posters school kits and so forth.  It has been very well received and already in use in schools and on TV.  Read more in its April 2020 eBulletin.

A new online exhibition of photos explores the student experience of life and learning during the COVID-19 pandemic By Mia Zentari, Adriana Ridzwan, Holly Chung, Callisha Gregg-Rowan, Rana Islamiah Zahroh and James Tapa, University of Melbourne

Prof Stuart Kinner explains the risk of coronavirus for vulnerable people in prison and other detention settings, amid calls for release

Australian MS Community: Have you been affected by COVID-19 or bushfires?

‘One-size-fits-all’ won’t work for COVID-19; research and policy must include intersecting factors like gender, age, indigeneity, disability, geography, socio-economic and refugee status By Professor Olena Hankivsky, University of Melbourne

– Episode 1 - In the Midst of Death there is Life: Recovery from the Apocalypse

We are looking for NDIS participants to interview about how they use and access their plans.

The Australian government has now announced a tailored COVID-19 strategy for people with disability, but it should have come sooner and may not go far enough

The Justice Health Unit’s Dr Kathryn Snow explains the coronavirus modelling that has informed Australia’s pandemic response.

The COVID-19 pandemic is creating major challenges for our residential rental system. The lockdown of businesses has meant an almost overnight loss of jobs or reduced hours for many Australian workers. Many tentants are struggling to pay their rent

Despite the government's efforts to defend employment and the economy, the second line of defence needs to be housing - keeping renters and mortgage holders in their homes.

The Justice Health Unit is supporting WHO in responding to COVID-19 in prisons and other custodial settings

The response to COVID-19 exposes how our acceptance of suffering on the basis of ‘affordability’ costs lives.

People with a disability are susceptible to serious illness or death if they contract COVID-19.

Dr Rosalind McDougall, Senior Lecturer in Health Ethics, Melbourne School of Population and Global HealthDr Linda Sheahan, Honorary Associate, Sydney Health Ethicsrmcdo@unimelb.edu.au

Leading researchers calling for urgent government action to develop a targeted response to COVID-19 for people with disability, their families and the disability service sector.