School based health services

Project Details

Project Team:

Prof Lena Sanci, Head of Department
Dr Bianca Forrester - GP Academic, Doctors in Secondary Schools Clinical Program
Dr Simone Craig - Lecturer, Doctors in Secondary Schools Clinical Program Coordinator
Ms Jessie Lu-Lee - Program Coordinator, Doctors in Secondary Schools
Dr Ian Williams - Research Fellow In Adolescent Health
Dr Phyllis Lau Chan - Senior Lecturer
Professor Meredith Temple-Smith, Director of Research Training
Dr Cathy Watson, Research Fellow - Project Manager, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health
Dr Ann-Maree Duncan, Research Administrative Support Officer

Adolescents frequently miss out on important health care due to barriers in accessing services. These can include cost, concerns about confidentiality, or simply not knowing where to go or how to access services. To combat this problem many governments globally have developed school-based health services (SBHS) to provide accessible primary care for low-income families. These services aim to promote a healthy lifestyle and enable students to have a better start in life. The use of SBHS in Australia offers potential for increasing and improving the delivery of primary care to adolescents, especially for those experiencing social disadvantage.

This work contributed the evidence behind the Victorian Government Doctors in Secondary Schools Program (link to that page), and also led to the formation of the Australasian School-Based Health Alliance (ASBHA). ASBHA works to improve the health of children and youth by advancing and advocating for quality school-based health services and care throughout Australia and New Zealand.

Funding:

Victorian Department of Education and Training, 2015

Collaborators:

Australasian School-based Health Alliance

Output:

This project undertook a rapid review of existing academic and grey literature around the world to determine barriers and enablers to provision of SBHS. A number of evidence-based recommendations for the employment of SBHS in the Australian context were produced.

Publications:

Sanci, Lena; Lau, Phyllis; Duncan, Ann-Maree; Watson, Catherine; Soos, Melinda; Temple-Smith, Meredith (2023): Models of Secondary School Health and Wellbeing Services. University of Melbourne. Report. https://doi.org/10.26188/22045208.v1