Contact

Anne-Marie McHugh | A/Nurse Co-Director, Community Health
Anne-Marie.McHugh@health.wa.gov.au

Anna Turnell | A/Service Co-Director, Community Health
Anna.Turnell@health.wa.gov.au

For general research enquires contact
ResearchRequests.CACH@health.wa.gov.au

Service Overview

CAHS Community Health services work with all children and families across the metropolitan area providing evidence-based services that are designed to promote good health and development during childhood and adolescence. These include child and school health assessments, screening, immunisation, and child development services. 

Community Health services have a broad reach and strong engagement with families living throughout the Perth metropolitan area. Our business is identification, prevention and early intervention and our research priorities are driven by community need and service improvement. These needs are understood through the relationships our clinicians form in the community, consumer feedback and the wealth of population-level data collected within our service.

Key Research Areas 

• Efficacy of Prevention and Early Intervention
• Childhood Developmental Delays and Disorders
• Child Health and Wellbeing
• Engaging Vulnerable Families
• Aboriginal Child Health and Wellbeing
• Youth Mental Health
• Digital Innovation
• Staff Wellbeing

Current Research Projects

Child Development Services

• Randomised control trial of a group based intervention for infants with social communication delays (G-AICES)
• Clinical effectiveness and business feasibility of providing online therapeutic information to parents of children with communication difficulties
• Oxytocin to improve social communication for children with ASD
• The drugs and bladder in behavioural disorders study (DABBED)
• Development of a clinical care pathway for children aged 4-16 years referred to the Child Development Service with disorders of attention and behaviour
• Identification of outcome measures and evaluation of the feasibility of implementation in the Child Development Service
• Establishing and evaluating an Aboriginal designed framework and methodology for understanding early childhood development and wellbeing of Aboriginal children
• Children’s Attention Project (CAP), a community-based longitudinal study of children with ADHD and non-ADHD

Community Health Nursing Services

• Pilot study: Parent-baby interaction (discovering and delighting in your baby) - Kalyakool Moort - Always Family - Developing a safe and effective approach to screening for perinatal depression and anxiety among Aboriginal families (Baby Coming - You Ready?)
• DETECT Schools Study: Understanding the impact of COVID-19 in Western Australian schools
• Partnering with consumers to focus health service provision and improve child outcomes in the Midland area

Our staff are also involved in research projects in the areas of:

• Smartphone and tablet computer use by parents and children and physical, mental and social functioning
• Predictors of developmental delay and learning difficulties
• Guanfacine and Melatonin use in developmental paediatrics
• Psychosocial assessment for secondary school students
• Management of childhood obesity
• Developmental monitoring, assessment and care
• Understanding families who do and do not attend community health services 

If you are interested in partnering with us, or would like any further information on our current research projects, please contact CAHS Community Health at ResearchRequests.CACH@health.wa.gov.au.