School based health services

Project Details

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.

Researchers

Prof Lena Sanci, Head of Department

Dr Phyllis Lau Chan - Senior Lecturer

Professor Meredith Temple-Smith, Professor, General Practice

Dr Cathy Watson, Research Fellow - Project Manager, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health

Dr Ann-Maree Duncan, Research Administrative Support Officer

Collaborators

Australasian School-based Health Alliance

Funding

Victorian Department of Education and Training, 2015

Research Outcomes

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.

Research 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