Research

Tresillian is actively engaged in research. The focus of Tresillian’s research activities include: developing new knowledge about child and family health, service evaluation and translating evidence into practice.

Tresillian has strong links with the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS), through the Tresillian Professor of Child and Family Health. The Chair is located within the Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery and Health’s Centre for Midwifery, Child and Family Health. UTS have several Tresillian staff members engaged in higher research degree programs.

Tresillian actively seeks research partnerships with other child and family health organisations and universities to engage in collaborative research programs. Currently Tresillian staff are involved in research projects with:

For further information about using Tresillian as a research site, please contact Anne-Lyse DeGuio 02 978 70862 or Anne-Lyse.DeGuio@sswahs.nsw.gov.au

Current Research Projects

MessengerMums - A Suicide Prevention Project

Providing emotional support and mental health advice on-line to new parents.

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Sustaining Practice Innovation in Child and Family Health

This research responds to an international consensus in health policy that identifies the need for health service-users to be more actively involved as partners in the development and delivery of health services. Whilst considerable investments have been made in achieving this outcome, progress has been minimal. To date little research has engaged with the complex issues of implementing and sustaining significant forms of practice change, in particular, well developed partnership practice. This research seeks to address this knowledge deficit, investigating these issues in two Australian and one New Zealand child and family health services committed to initiating and sustaining partnership practice.

Researchers: Prof Alison Lee (UTS), Prof Cathrine Fowler (UTS/Tresillian), Dr Roger Dunston (UTS), Dr Jo McKenzie (UTS), Prof Graham Vimpani (Kaleidoscope Hunter Children’s Health Network), Dr Crispin Day (Centre for Parent and Child Support, London), Angela Baldwin (Plunket New Zealand)

Funding: UTS Partnership Grant and Partner Organisation contribution

Completion Date: 2010

‘Clinical Stories’ shared at ‘Handover’ compared with formal documentation by Child and Family Health Nurses
This study is investigating and evaluating nursing documentation practices and verbal handover practices within a child and family health setting. It has a focus on the differences between what nurses write in the medical records and what they communicate verbally in ‘handover’ and identify variations between the verbal and written stories.

Researchers: Jane Kookarkin (Tresillian/UTS Masters of Health (Hons) student), Professor Maralyn Foureur (UTS), Prof Cathrine Fowler (UTS/Tresillian)

Proposed completion date: 2011
This research study is being completed as a requirement of Master of Health (Hons) within the Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery and Health, UTS

Completed Research

Tresillian Model of Care Implementation within Residential Services
This project is evaluating the implementation of the Tresillian Model of Care within the Tresillian residential services at Belmore, Willoughby and Nepean over a 12 month period.

Researchers: Prof Cathrine Fowler (UTS/Tresillian), Julie Maddox (Tresillian), Anne-Lyse DeGuio (Tresillian), Dr Carolyn Briggs (UTS), Prof Denise Dignam (UTS), Jane Kookarkin (Tresillian), Chris Rossiter (Tresillian), Carol Frazer (Tresillian), Magella O’Brien (Tresillian).

Completion Date: December 2010

Funding: Tresillian Family Care Centres

Tresillian Home Visiting Intervention Project
This project aims to improve parent-child relationships, to optimise children's cognitive and emotional development, and to enhance family functioning within targeted high-risk groups through the use of extended home visiting. Tresillian clinicians have identified these women/parents as having unmet psychosocial needs and as requiring more intensive support with their parenting.

In addition this project has been designed to improve:

  • the mother's mental and physical health and wellbeing
  • uptake of professional and informal support in the community
  • the mother's perception of competency in caretaking
  • her perception of the relationship with her baby
  • her emotional availability to her infant during interactions
  • her reports of positive infant temperament and positive toddler behaviour

Researchers: Prof Cathrine Fowler (UTS/Tresillian), Dr Catherine McMahon (Macquarie University, School of Psychology) and Dr Nick Kowalenko (RNSH, Tresillian & University of Sydney), Chris Rossiter (Tresillian).

Funding: The Home Visiting Intervention component is funded by Commonwealth Department of Family and Community Services Early Intervention Parenting Grants. This was initially for 3 years. Due to the positive outcomes of the research additional funding has been received to extend the project until June 2009 through the Commonwealth Government REACH Grant. The comparison component of the project has been funded by Macquarie University.

Completion date: December 2009

Mothering at a Distance
This project is in collaboration with NSW Department of Corrective Services (DCS).

This project has established a self sustaining education and support program to assist with the case management and addressing the criminogenic needs of incarcerated mothers and enhance their ability to provide appropriate and sensitive parenting, reducing the emotional and social impact of separation due to incarceration on their children 0-5 years with the aim of breaking the inter-generational cycle of crime.

Researchers: Prof Cathrine Fowler (UTS/Tresillian), Kyleigh Heggie (DCS), Victoria Perry (DCS), Judy McHutchinson (DCS), Dr Catherine McMahon (Macquarie University), Dr Nick Kowalenko (Tresillian), Prof Andrew Cashin (UTS/Justice Health).

Funding: This was a 3 year collaborative project between Tresillian Family Care Centres and NSW Department of Corrective Services funded through the Greater Western Sydney: National Community Crime Prevention Programme as an Australian Government Initiative.

Completed: June 2009

Understanding Motherhood and Mothering from Inside

This project was in collaboration with NSW Department of Corrective Services.
The main purpose of this project was to implement and evaluate two ten week groups that will enhance the mother and infant relationship by:

  • increasing maternal sensitivity and appropriate responsiveness to infant's signals
  • increasing mother's ability to reflect on her own and infant's behaviour, thoughts and feelings in regard to attachment & caregiving interactions
  • identifying and building on maternal & infant strengths
  • increasing mother's knowledge and skills to care for her infant
  • to enhance the positive impact of their current caregiving patterns and behaviour
  • reducing negative (punitive) parenting interactions.

The group program is based on strength and relationship based approaches for working with the women and children. The two 10 week groups have been completed. The groups required 4 facilitators (3 from Tresillian and 1 from NSW Department of Corrective Services). Weekly clinical supervision was provided. Pre and post data has been collected.

Researchers: Dr Cathrine Fowler (Tresillian): Ms Belinda McInnes (NSW Department of Corrective Services); Dr Catherine McMahon (Macquarie University); Dr Nick Kowalenko (Tresillian & Royal North Shore Hospital), Chris Rossiter (Tresillian)

Funding: NSW Government Women's Grant program.

Completed: 2004

Evaluation of Family Partnerships Model training and its possible impact on Child and Family Health nurses' practice and client care.
New South Wales has started to introduce the Family Partnerships model (FPM). The FPM promotes 'family friendly' communication between people attempting to support families and families themselves. This project evaluated training in the FPM delivered to 16 Child and Family Health (CFH) nurses in October 2002.

Project objectives include identification of:

  • the impact, if any, of training in this model on participants perceptions of their practice,
  • participant's perceptions about the relevance of the FPM and its likely impact on their practice (and thereby their clients);
  • whether or not participants have trained other CFH nurses in the FPM since their participation in the initial training,
  • barriers to participants' achieving this

Researchers: Professor Diana Keatinge (University of Newcastle), Dr Cathrine Fowler (Tresillian), Dr Carolyn Briggs (University of Technology), Ms Marian Clark (Families First Hunter)

Funding: Grant from Hunter Children's Research Foundation

Completed: 2003

If you want further information on any of Tresillian’s research projects, click here