News articles archive

15th October 2007: 'Low Paid Work in Australia: Realities and responses’, McCaughey Presentation

Associate Professor Tony Lamontagne contributed recently to the Centre for Public Policy’s symposium on ‘Low Paid Work in Australia: Realities and responses’.  The symposium, presented in conjunction with the Brotherhood of St Laurence, explored the realities of low-paid work in Australian, including the links between low wages, poverty and exclusion and the mobility of low wage workers. It also canvassed policy options to reduce potential negative impacts of low-paid work. Tony’s presentation was put together with research colleagues from the McCaughey Centre, the University of Victoria (British Columbia, Canada), the Department of Epidemiology and Preventative Medicine (Monash University), and the Institute for Work and Health (Toronto, Canada), and  looked at ‘Low paid work, occupational hazards, and health’.  

1st October 2007: Launch of the WHO Age-Friendly Cities Guide

Today, 1 October 2007 marks the UN International Day for Older Persons and the launch of the WHO Age Friendly Cities Guide. While the major WHO English language launch will take place in London at 10am local time, Melbourne, nine hours ahead of London, was the first participating city to launch the Guide at an event organised by Council on the Ageing Victoria. Over 160 people were welcomed by Mr Telmo Languiller MP, Parliamentary Secretary to the Department of Human Services on behalf of the Premier, John Brumby. Dr Kathleen Brasher presented an overview of the Age-Friendly Cities Guide, while Mr Dick Gross, President of the Municipal Association of Victoria, and Ms Merle Mitchell AM, chair of the Ministerial Advisory Committee for Senior Victorians, provided reflections on the important role the Guide will play in local governments working with older persons to ensure all cities are age-friendly.

Download the Checklist of Essential Features for Age Friendly Cities

Download a copy of the Global Age Friendly Cities Guide

See our News Archive for earlier details on the WHO Age Friendly Cities Project.

20th August 2007: Work and You: Happy Together

On Monday 20th August at 5.30pm in the Shine Dome, Canberra, the McCaughey Centre’s Associate Professor Tony LaMontagne participated in a panel discussion on work and mental health on the ABC’s ‘Life Matters’ program as part of National Science Week. The panel’s explored the topic - 'Do you whistle while you work? Or feel you’re stuck in a dark, satanic mill? For good or ill, work has a huge impact on our lives. It affects our well-being, our health, even our families. Come and learn how handling workplace pressures can be critical for your mental health'. The session was hosted by Richard Aedy from ABC Radio National, with a discussion panel comprising Associate Professor Tony LaMontagne (Principal Research Fellow, The McCaughey Centre), Dr Clare Shann (Senior Program Manager, The beyondblue National Workplace Program), Mr Graeme Cowan (Back from the Brink) and Mr Forrest Koch, a Carpentry Apprentice who has completed the Ozhelp Program. Audio of the session can be heard here.

9th August 2007: Two new projects in ‘Community Planning’ and ‘Creating Liveable New Communities’

Local Government Community Planning

The McCaughey Centre's Sue West, in conjunction with Hayden Raysmith, Adjunct Professor RMIT, is undertaking an evaluation of Victorian local government community planning. Local Government Victoria is funding the project, which includes the development of a self assessment tool for ten pilot Councils, and will result in a report on lessons from the experiences from the Councils and the policy implications.

Creating Liveable New Communities

The McCaughey Centre has joined forces with Griffith University’s Urban Research Centre in a project with the Victorian Growth Areas Authority around ‘Creating Liveable New Communities’.  The research team, led by Sue West, is developing a strategic framework and practical tools for creating socially sustainable new communities which will be underpinned by a review of key literature and interviews with stakeholders. The McCaughey Centre’s team of key project advisors including Sue West, John Wiseman and Marion Frere are joined by Dr Margaret Kelaher from the Centre for Public Health, Programs and Economics, and Dr Carolyn Whitzman, Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning, both from the University of Melbourne.  Dr Geoff Woolcock and Tim Eltham from Griffith University complete the team.

5th August 2007: XXIII International Cartographic Conference

Dr Xiaogang Chen presented a paper, co-authored with Professor Ian Bishop from the Department of Geomatics, at the XXIII International Cartographic Conference held in Moscow from the 4th to the 10th August 2007. The paper, titled 'Enhancing community understanding of land cover change using Geo-visualisations', was presented under the theme of Virtual Models, 3d and Geo-visualization in Cartography. Dr Chen used his attendance at the conference as an opportunity to engage with the ICA Commission on Geo-visualization and to meet with the ICA Commission on Map Use and User Group. He also represented the Community Indicators Victoria project at the ICC conference, and on the home leg of his journey made a presentation on the Community Indicators Victoria Framework to colleagues in the China Social Entrepreneur Foundation to inform their project on Poverty Alleviation in China.

XXIII International Cartographic Conference

19th July 2007: 2nd OECD Forum on Statistics, Knowledge and Policy

Feedback received from the OECD's Chief Statistician and Director, Enrico Giovannini, is that the 2nd OECD World Forum on Statistics, Knowledge and Policy was a huge success, with a number of important next steps stemming from the conference. Professor John Wiseman attended the forum, titled 'Measuring and Fostering the Progress of Societies', in Istanbul, Turkey from the 27-30th June 2007, and acted as discussant around the topic ‘The Development of Indicators for Local Communities’, exploring the work being done to produce sets of progress indicators for local communities and the impact these have. 

The Istanbul World Forum was attended by 130 countries, and provided a unique opportunity for in-depth discussions about the measurement of progress, as well as some of the most important concerns facing the world, such as climate change, health and economic globalisation.  The Istanbul Declaration was launched on the final day of the forum, and encourages the measurement of societal progress through statistical indicators that go beyond conventional economic measures such as GDP per capita.  Significant support was also expressed by participants in embarking on a Global Project to Measure the Progress of Societies, which aims to be the catalyst for a global conversation about what progress means, and to tackle one of the most pertinent questions of our time – how to improve the nexus between evidence, decision making and public discourse.  The McCaughey Centre will be talking to a range of local partners, including RMIT, Griffith and Swinburne Universities, about developing a national collaboration to feed into this groundbreaking OECD project. 

16th July 2007: Official Launch of the McCaughey Centre

The launch of the McCaughey Centre: VicHealth for the Promotion of Mental Health and Community Wellbeing took place in the Woodward Conference Centre on the afternoon of Monday 16th July, with around 130 people in attendance. The Centre’s official launch was undertaken by the Hon Peter Batchelor (Minister for Victorian Communities), with endorsement by Professor Glyn Davis (Vice-Chancellor, University of Melbourne), Mr Todd Harper (CEO, VicHealth), and Cr Janet Bolitho (Mayor, City of Port Phillip). Professor James Angus (Dean, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences), and the Centre’s patron Ms Jean McCaughey were also in attendance. Whilst the McCaughey Centre has been busily operating for a year to date, the official launch by Minister Batchelor incorporated the launch of the new Community Indicators Victoria (CIV) website. The CIV website, hosted by the McCaughey Centre, uses local community wellbeing indicators to improve citizen engagement, community planning and policy making. McCaughey Centre Director Professor John Wiseman thanked the Centre’s Advisory Committee Chair Mr Michael Wright for mc’ing the event, and the Centre’s academic and professional staff for undertaking a full and challenging year of work to bring the Centre to launch. Thanks was also expressed to a number of individuals who played a key role in the Centre’s inception, including Professor Pip Pattison, Professor Glenn Bowes, Professor Terry Nolan, and Professor Rob Moodie. The financial contribution and support provided to the Centre by VicHealth and the MDHS faculty was also acknowledged. Download a copy of the media release here.

3rd July 2007: 'Community wellbeing in an unwell world: Trends, challenges and opportunities'

McCaughey Centre Director Professor John Wiseman presented a keynote address as part of the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences’ 2007 Dean’s Lecture Series on the evening of Tuesday 3rd July in the Sunderland Lecture Theatre, University of Melbourne.  John addressed a capacity crowd in the Sunderland on the topic of 'Community wellbeing in an unwell world: Trends, challenges and opportunities'  A copy of his presentation can be accessed here, whilst audio of the lecture can be downloaded from here.

1st July 2007: The WHO Global Age-Friendly Cities Project

The WHO Global Age-Friendly Cities Project is an international research project involving 33 cities in 22 countries. The Melbourne project is funded by the Council on the Ageing (COTA) and the Municipal Association of Victoria (MAV).
An age-friendly city promotes active ageing, defined as ‘the process of optimizing opportunities for health, participation and security in order to enhance quality of life as people age’ (Active Ageing: A Policy Framework WHO, 2002). An age-friendly city recognises the great diversity among older people, promoting their inclusion and contribution in all areas of community life. It respects their decisions and lifestyle choices, anticipating and responding flexibly to ageing-related needs and preferences.
The Melbourne community assessment took place through a series of eight focus group discussions with participants from the City of Maribrynong. The information collected in these sessions was analysed for a report delivered to the WHO in February 2007.
Since then, Dr. Kathleen Brasher has presented the findings to:

• a community meeting of older people and to a council meeting in the City of Maribyrnong;
• a seminar on promoting age-friendly cities for the Geelong Regional Alliance;
• as the keynote address at the launch of the ‘Healthy Ageing in Hume City Strategic Directions 2007-2012’ report; and to
• The Australian Sociological Association Health Conference.

In collaboration with researchers from the Melville, WA project, combined findings will be presented to the Australian Association of Gerontology National conference, November 20007 in Adelaide.
The WHO Global Age-Friendly Guide will be released on the International Day of Older Persons in London on 1 October 2007. Melbourne will be represented by the Mayor of the City of Maribyrnong.

5th March 2007: Asbestos study may aid detection

Dr Andrew Holloway from the Peter MacCallum Cancer Institute, with Associate Professor Tony Lamontagne and Dr Deborah Vallance from the McCaughey Centre, are undertaking an NHMRC study on asbestos related disease amongst Latrobe Valley power industry workers. See the attached article for details regarding the initial stages of this project.

14th December 2006: VicHealth Awards

Congratulations to Associate Professor Tony Lamontagne and Tessa Keegel for their VicHealth award celebrating achievement in Health Promotion in Mental Health (the $15,000 to $75,000 category). Tony and Tessa received the award for their work on the project ‘Workplace Stress in Victoria: Developing a Systems Approach’, which was undertaken in the School of Population Health’s Centre for Health and Society. The award was presented by Ted Baillieu at the VicHealth Annual General Meeting in Parliament Gardens on the evening of 13th December 2006.

Tony Lamontagne joined the McCaughey Centre from the Centre for Health and Society (CHS) in October 2006, and remains linked to the CHS as an honorary Principal Research Fellow and the designated academic liaison between CHS and the McCaughey Centre.  Tessa Keegel also joined the McCaughey Centre in October 2006, and continues her links with the Centre for Health and Society as a PhD candidate.

The full report from the Workplace Stress project can be downloaded here.