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Family & Community Health Research Unit

 

The Family and Community Health Research Unit (FaCHRU) is involved in a range of research projects concerned with:

(1) the impact of family and community circumstances on health (especially mental health and wellbeing) and, conversely,

(2) the impact of ill health on family and community participation and quality of life.

Community circumstances are taken to include institutional environments, eg workplaces for adults, schools and colleges for young people, as well as neighbourhoods and more diffuse cultural influences.

 

Current projects cover:

* relationships between family changes and mental health;

* mental health problems in groups of welfare benefit recipients;

* relationships between voluntary participation and mental health;

* the impact of working conditions, unemployment and early retirement on health and wellbeing; and

* long-term health outcomes associated with childhood family adversity and abuse.

 

A fundamental aspect of these projects is the attempt to draw implications for policy and practice from research findings and to help develop specific interventions, and several studies involve partnerships with government and non-government organisations.

 

Contact: Dr Peter Butterworth or Tel. 02 6125 8097