Working in partnership to support children and families in the early years

Join us for the Healthy Development Adelaide (HDA) forum held in conjunction with our partner organisation Preventive Health SA.

It is well known that the early years of life lay the foundations for future health and wellbeing. Positive health and wellbeing behaviours established across early childhood can have a lasting effect across the lifetime and play a critical role in primary prevention.  This forum will focus on the collaborative partnership between Preventive Health SA and Caring Futures Institute, Flinders University and their joint commitment to supporting families for improved health and wellbeing in the early years.

OUR SPEAKERS

Professor Rebecca Golley, Interim Director and Dean of Research, Caring Futures Institute, Flinders University

Evidence informed action to support health and wellbeing of all South Australian families: making a difference by connecting the dots in a complex system

Professor Rebecca Golley is an internationally recognized expert in child obesity prevention and nutrition promotion interventions and dietary assessment. She has a strong track record in nutritional epidemiology, behavioral nutrition, food parenting, intervention development and evaluation as well as research translation. Professor Golley has published over 120 peer-reviewed publications, with over 3177 citations. Having secured over $13 Million in external research funding, Professor Golley's body of research has helped transform approaches to the prevention and management of childhood obesity and improved our ability to routinely monitor and measure obesity-related behaviours.

Dr Natasha Schranz, A/Executive Director, Population Health, Preventive Health SA / HDA Ambassador

An overview of Preventive Health SA

Dr Natasha Schranz co-founded and led the national Active Healthy Kids Australia (AHKA) collaboration for five years. In this role, Natasha advocated across sectors, using the AHKA Report Card on Physical Activity for Children and Young People as the driving mechanism, for increased investment at all levels to support children’s participation in physical activity. Natasha was also a member of the Active Healthy Kids Global Alliance Executive Committee as the Oceania representative during this time. In February 2020, Natasha was appointed Principal Physical Activity Officer, Wellbeing SA and has recently moved to a new role within Population Health, Preventive Health SA.

Dr Brittany Johnson, Senior Research Fellow, Caring Futures Institute, Flinders University / Early-Mid Career Research Fellow, The Hospital Research Foundation Group

Co-designing an evidence dashboard for planning child health behaviour programs and services

Dr Brittany Johnson’s research aims to equip families with practical strategies to ensure children eat well, move more, and get enough sleep, to support health, development, and growth. She has expertise in applying behaviour change theory to understand current behaviours and how we can positively shift behaviours. Brittany leads research programs in supporting children’s health behaviours in under 5-year-olds and building the evidence for school-provided meals in Australia.  

Konnie Kalompratsos, Registered Nurse and Midwife, Child and Family Health Service (CaFHS), Women’s and Children’s Health network & Dr Sarah Hunter, Senior Research Fellow (joint), Caring Futures Institute, Flinders University and Preventive Health SA

Caring for caregivers: implementing an evidence informed program to support caregiver wellbeing

Konnie is a Registered Nurse and Midwife commencing at the Child and Family Health Service (CaFHS) in July 2019, working across various sites, and currently Acting Associate Nurse Unit Manager at the Edwardstown CaFHS. This year Konnie started in the ‘CaFHS Project Lead’ role for the Caring for Caregivers Project, involved in the implementation and coordination of this project working closely with Sarah to develop project content for the study, and will be the nurse delivering this content in Early Parenting Groups as part of the study intervention.

Dr Sarah Hunter is a social psychologist and implementation scientist, and she applies her knowledge translation and implementation skills to shape an evidence-informed Early Years System in Australia that engages and supports parents and caregivers. Her research focuses on understanding the complex and diverse ways in which caregivers enact child rearing and how they navigate services and support. This program of research intersects with implementation science as it explores facilitating and implementing evidence into complex multi-sector systems, with a focus on the contextual and recipient factors that influence success.

OUR CHAIR

Professor Rebecca Golley, Interim Director and Dean of Research, Caring Futures Institute, Flinders University

Other event information:

Networking and light refreshments will follow the session from 7.30pm.

This is a public forum and also open to the community, everyone is welcome to attend.

Register here:  https://events.humanitix.com/working-in-partnership-to-support-children-and-families-in-the-early-years