This page is archived and retained for historic purposes.
Indigenous Health
The main focus of the Indigenous Health theme is to conduct community-championed collaborative research involving a number of key stakeholders. Collaborators come from a variety of backgrounds including Aboriginal community navigators, paediatricians, physiotherapists, school educators, human rights experts, film makers and creative advertising agencies. The focus area of this stream is Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD). With our collaborators we aim to help improve the lives of children and families with FASD.
Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders are a range of disorders that occur when women drink alcohol during pregnancy. Children may be born with a range of lifelong learning and behaviour difficulties. Work in this theme has involved collaborating with Indigenous leaders from remote communities, researchers from the Telethon Kids Institute, and paediatricians from the Discipline of Paediatrics and Child Health at the University of Sydney, to conduct the first study of the prevalence of FASD in remote Aboriginal communities. This work, which was co-lead by Professor Latimer, was known as the Lililwan Project and provided the first understanding of the burden of FASD for remote communities.
Theme Leader:
Prof Chris Maher
Current research projects & trials
FASD Research Australia
FASD Research Australia has been established by research leaders with funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) for five years (2016-2020) and is being led by the Telethon Kids Institute. FASD Research Australia aims to contribute to the sustainable empowerment of communities, organisations and professionals to address FASD, and reduce its compounding impact on affected children, their families and the wider community. It harnesses the extensive skills and experience of a multidisciplinary research and clinical team and their networks to support high-quality and high-impact research to address three key areas related to Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD). Principal Investigator: Professor Carol Bower – Telethon Kids Institute. Institute for Musculoskeletal Health Investigator: Professor Jane Latimer For more information, please visit FASD Research Australia w: https://alcoholpregnancy.telethonkids.org.au/our-research/fasd-research-australia-cre/
ALERT - Determining the effectiveness of a program to improve primary school aged children's measures of self-regulation and executive functioning, with and without a fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, in the Fitzroy Valley region of Western Australia
The intention of the trial is to demonstrate the effectiveness of the Alert Program in primary school aged children with or without Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD). The aim of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of the Alert Program in improving self-regulation and executive function in primary school children, with or without FASD. Recent work has confirmed that FASD prevalence is amongst the highest in the world in remote communities in north-western Australia where alcohol misuse has been endemic. Thirty percent of children assessed in the Lililwan study had problems with self-regulation or their ability to change their state of arousal so that it appropriately matched the tasks to be performed. The Alert Program has been designed by occupational therapists to improve a child’s ability to self-regulate, and uses the analogy of a car engine to teach students about self-regulation. This work evaluates the use of the Alert Program in remote community settings where there is a high prevalence of FASD, and is being led by the Telethon Kids Institute, with Prof Latimer from the Institute for Musculoskeletal Health collaborating on this work. This study is currently recruiting. Children enrolled in years one to six at one of the nine study site schools in the Fitzroy Valley may be eligible to participate. Principal Investigator: Dr James Fitzpatrick Institute for Musculoskeletal Health Investigator: Professor Jane Latimer This study has received ethics approval from the University of Western Australia and funding through the NHMRC. For more information about this Telethon Kids Institute project: Visit the Alert Program website w:https://alcoholpregnancy.telethonkids.org.au/our-research/research-projects/alert-program/ Or contact Study Coordinator: Bree Wagner e: bree.wagner@telethonkids.org.au Trial registered on ANZCTR: ACTRN12615000733572