The Meaning of Health Podcast

Thank you for joining us for another episode where we continue a recent theme of psychology and mental health with Dr Julie Ji, a Forrest Research Fellow based on the School of Psychological Science at the University of Western Australia. We chat with Julie about her career pathway that has taken her from China to the UK, USA, and now Australia. We have an interesting conversation about how mental...

Welcome to another episode where we chat with Associate Professor Rohan Borschmann from the University of Melbourne and the Murdoch Children's Research Institute. Rohan is a psychologist who has worked extensively in the area of self-harm, primarily amongst adolescents, and also in populations who have a history of contact with the justice system. He has worked in clinical practice, and is now pri...

Welcome back to the Meaning of Health. In this episode we chat with Associate Professor Jennifer Stone, a biostatistician working in the area of genetic epidemiology at the School of Population and Global at the University of Western Australia. Jennifer's work focuses on breast density and the role this plays in women developing breast cancer, and the role that certain genes, or combinations of ge...

Welcome back to the podcast after a short break. We are very happy to bring you a conversation with Dr Stephan Lund from the University of Western Australia School of Allied Health. Stephan is a social worker and lecturer, qualified both academically and by a wide range of life experiences which he discusses with us. Stephan's work as a social worker has largely focused on assisting young people a...

Welcome to another episode of the Meaning of Health, where this time we chat with Psychiatrist Associate Professor Mathew Coleman. Mathew practices in the town of Albany in the Great Southern region of Western Australia and lectures at the Rural Clinical School of WA. He specialises in adolescent and addiction psychiatry. Our conversation touches on a range of areas around health and health policy...

Welcome to another episode of the Meaning of Health. This week we are joined by Dr Dani Barrington from the School of Population and Global Health at the University of Western Australia. Dani started her academic career in Environmental Chemistry and Environmental Systems Engineering before her work in the developing world led her to Public Health. Dani has worked in several countries across the g...

Hello and welcome back for another edition of the Meaning of Health. We chat with Executive Director of the Health Consumers Council of Western Australia (HCCWA), Pip Brennan. Pip draws on a wealth of different life experiences in her role and discusses how she ended up working in advocating on behalf of health consumers. We discuss Pip's experience as a victim of crime, and the journey that took...

Welcome back to another episode of the Meaning of Health, number 40! The mark the occasion we welcome Jasmine, James and Gael from the Cancer Council of Western Australia's Live Lighter campaign. They discuss their latest Menu App campaign (the first new locally produced Live Lighter content for several years) that was launched recently to create awareness around the link between eating fast food,...

Hi everyone, thank you for joining us. In this episode we chat with Andy Kazim about the Home Stretch project. Home Stretch is a current pilot initiative aimed at ensuring that children who have been in out of home care in the child protection system in Western Australia have the option of continuing to receive support between 18-21 years of age rather than abruptly aging out of the care system on...

Hello and welcome to another episode, this time with Margaret Doherty, founder of Mental Health Matters 2. We visited Margaret at her home, enjoyed her hospitality and had a fantastic chat about a range of issues around mental health, justice and advocacy. Margaret gave us a brief history of her journey starting out aspiring to a career in economics in Europe, to becoming an accomplished and effec...

A big welcome to everyone for our first episode of 2021. We start the year with a bang with a conversation we recorded late last year with Adjunct Professor Tarun Weeramanthri. Tarun holds an adjunct position at the School of Population and Global Health at UWA, and has an extensive and impressive CV. Tarun is a medical doctor, and also completed a PhD. He practiced medicine in the Northern Territ...

Join us for a chat about the year that was and a bit of a light hearted discussion about some of the articles from the BMJ and MJA Christmas issues. You can find the articles we discuss here: https://www.bmj.com/content/371/bmj.m4467 https://www.mja.com.au/journal/2020/213/11/what-forks-longitudinal-quality-improvement-study-tracking-cutlery-numbers We wish everyone a happy holiday season and look...

We are joined by Professor Tim Colmer for a chat in this episode. Tim is a plant physiologist who conducts research into stress tolerance of plants, particularly in conditions where there is high salinity, drough, or waterlogging. Tim is also the Deputy Vice Chancellor of Research at the University of Western Australia. We chat with Tim about his research, and how his area of work intersects with...

In this episode we chat with Dr Marilyn Bromberg from the UWA Law School about Body Image Law and the non-consensual sharing of intimate images. Marilyn has had an interesting career that has spanned journalism, legal practice and academic legal research. The conversation touches on how health can be impacted by the media and we talk about how society's approach to discussing body size and body im...

We sit down with members of the 100 Families project team for the second time to discuss the findings of their snapshot report looking at the Social impacts of COVID-19 on families living in hardship. We discuss the many ways in which COVID-19 and the associated restrictions have impacted on the 100 Families participants, which included disruptions to their normal medical care and social support s...

In this episode we chat with Joshua Bamford from the School of Anthropology & Museum Ethnography at the University of Oxford. Joshua talks us through his background in music, and how seeing the silent disco at the Fringe Festival in Perth some years ago provided the inspiration for his current research, which looks at how dancing with other people impacts on social bonding. Joshua grew up in W...

This episode sees the return to the podcast of Dr Karen Martin, lecturer and researcher from the School of Population and Global Health at UWA. Karen chats without us about her experience leading the Thoughtful Schools Program, a pilot study aiming to support schools to be more trauma informed in their response to dealing with challenging behaviour of some children. We discuss the many ways that t...

In this episode we chat with Associate Professor Meredith Blake from the University of Western Australia Law School. Meredith talks to us about starting out as a government lawyer, and then moving to the UK and the beginning of her career as an law academic. We touch on human rights law as our conversation focuses on the legal and ethical issues that arise when people have either completely or par...

In this episode we have a chat with Dr Charley Budgeon, biostatistician and lecturer at the School of Population and Global Health at UWA. Charley talks us through her education and career, and a long-term collaboration with Dr Stefan Mark Nidorf as the lead biostatistician analysing data for trials that he has led investigating whether anti-inflammatory drug Colchicine could be used to reduce the...

In this episode we travel to the Midlas offices in Midland to speak with Amanda Ghouse, a financial counsellor, about the work Midlas does in assisting people who find themselves in financial distress. Amanda explains the range of services that Midlas provides to their clients, in addition to financial counselling they offer legal and tenancy advocacy and support, and have recently starting assist...

In this episode we have a conversation via Zoom with Professor Jon Watson, Executive Dean of the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences at the University of Western Australia. Jon is a practicing gastroenterologist who has also done extensive research into viruses, with his primary focus being on better understanding and treating Hepatitis C. This work has led to Jon being heavily involved in the...

Have you ever wondered how those often graphic health promotion campaigns that you see on television, or on billboards around the city are made? In this episode we chat with Kelly Kennington who is the manager of the Cancer Council of Western Australia’s Live Lighter Campaign that aims to address the growing rates of obesity in the community. We discuss how and why health promotion campaigns are r...

This episode is part 2 of our chat with Dr Michael Christmass, a drug and alcohol addiction Dr from the Next Step Clinic in East Perth. In this part of our conversation we continue our discussion about dopamine and the different types of drugs that Mike's clients have used and are seeking assistance with including cannabis and methamphetamine. We also discuss the challenges in treating cannabis an...

In this episode we have a great chat with Dr Michael Christmass, a drug and alcohol addiction doctor practising at Next Step Clinic in East Perth. Mike has had an interesting and unique journey into medicine discusses his career pathway with us, and his motivations for practicing addiction medicine. This is the first of two episodes that you will hear with Mike as he was very generous with his tim...

Hello and welcome to another episode of the Meaning of Health where we are joined by Hannah Pierce, the Alcohol Policy and Research coordinator at the Cancer Council of Western Australia, and the current president of the West Australian Branch of the Public Health Association of Australia. Hannah's work looks at how alcohol is marketed in Australia. This includes ads on billboards that you might s...