Dr Kathleen Brasher

Research Fellow, McCaughey Centre, VicHealth Centre for the Promotion of Mental Health and Community Wellbeing

Telephone: +61 3 8344 3179
Facsimile: +61 3 9348 2832
Email: brasherk@unimelb.edu.au

Research Fellow Dr Kathleen Brasher’s richly diverse career has equipped her to see possibilities and “cross borders” in her work. Kathleen’s multi-disciplinary approach has been developed through her practical experience in the health sector, her academic research and her work in public policy.

Her search for deeper answers has stimulated her interest in the use of narrative theory in evidence-based research. Narrative theory, in simplified terms, investigates how we make sense of our experiences by the stories we tell about them. Through her PhD work in particular, Kathleen has found that narrative theory adds a dimension to evidence-based research that quantitative methods fail to capture.

In the McCaughey Centre’s charting of community indicators, for example, an interpretive approach based on narrative theory can supplement the evidence gathered by questionnaires.

“I see narrative theory as supporting and helping to inform the ways people understand community strengthening,” she says.

“I think the questionnaires in the community indicators work will give us one set of answers – answers that are strong and robust and needed – and yet there are other stories that interviewees will be telling that we can also capture.

“Their stories can help us also understand the different ways in which people can experience both their mental wellbeing and their sense of who they are in the community and what they require of their community. I see both questionnaires and narrative theory as being useful tools.”

Kathleen’s current policy and research interests include:

• Understandings of health and illness
• Qualitative methods
• Family wellbeing
• Social theory
• Civic participation

Qualifications

Doctor of Philosophy, Monash University (2003)

Graduate Diploma of Arts, (Philosophy and Social Theory), The University of Melbourne (commenced 2004)

Bachelor of Applied Science (Nursing), Monash University (1993)

Certificate of Midwifery, Monash Medical Centre (1989)

Certificate of General Nurse Training, the Royal Melbourne Hospital (1981)

Work history

Kathleen Brasher has worked as a researcher, nurse, midwife, educator, program coordinator and senior project officer, and most of her experience has been gained in clinical or research environments. 

2007-ongoing: Honorary Lecturer, Department of Paediatrics

2003-2004: Senior Project Officer, Disability Services Department of Human Services

2002-2003: Research Fellow, Chronic Illness Research Unit,  School of Nursing, Deakin University

1996-2002: PhD candidate, Department of Paediatrics, Monash University

2000-2002: Lecturer (Casual), Centre for Graduate Studies in Clinical Nursing, Monash University

1991-1996: Co-ordinator Home Infant Monitoring Program
Department of Paediatrics, Monash Medical Centre

1992-1994: Tissue coordinator (part-time), Donor Tissue Bank of Victoria, Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine

1992-1994: Childbirth and Parenting Educator, Birth & Being, Jessie McPherson Private Hospital

1988-1991: Midwife (part-time), Monash Medical Centre

1978-1984: Student Nurse, Staff Nurse, Royal Melbourne Hospital

Community involvement highlights

• Whitehorse Community Health Service, Board of Management member
• Secretary, Australian Fabian Society (Victorian Branch)
• Box Hill Hospital, Redevelopment Community Advisory Group member
• Chisholm FEA, Policy Development Officer and Policy Development Committee member
• Royal Victorian Institute for the Blind, Burwood Education Centre Research Review committee member
• Australian Association of Infant Mental Health member
• Australian Society for Medical Research member
• Global SIDS Task Force member
• National SIDS Council Register of Researchers member
• Perinatal Society of Australia and New Zealand member
• Royal College of Nursing member
• Victorian Disability Advisory Council board member

Prizes and awards

Monash University Post-graduate Travel Grant (1999)

PhD – First prize for excellence in presentation, Institute of Reproduction and Development, Monash University (1997)

Monash Graduate Scholarship Grisha Sklovsky Memorial Award (1996)
SIDS Victoria Community and Family Services Award (1996)
Royal Melbourne Hospital A. H. Wall Award (1982)

Recent publications and conference papers

‘When Mothers Find Their Child without Breath’ (to be published) in Mother Life, in V. Bergum, and J. Van der Zalm (eds) University of Alberta Press, Alberta, 2007

‘Harry Potter and the apnoeic infant: fact, fiction and the construction of meaning’ K.C. Brasher, R.R. Doherty, and R.L. Axford. 2001 Proceedings of the 5th Annual PSANZ Congress, Canberra Australia [poster presentation]

‘Hearing the Stories’. Department of Human Services, Disability Services Community Building Forum Restorying Our Lives – The Power of Narrative in Community Building, Melbourne Australia [Invited speaker] 2004

‘Evaluating through stories’, Department of Human Services, Grampians Region, Community Choices Review Session 4 Telling the Story, Ballarat, Australia [Invited speaker] 2004